President Trump insisted during his tour of the Texas border Thursday that he never believed Mexico would actually write a check to cover new and replacement barriers between the two countries.
“When I say Mexico’s going to pay for the wall, do you think they’re going to write a check for $20 billion or $10 billion or $5 billion or two cents? No. Of course not,” Trump told reporters during a trip to the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas Thursday afternoon.
However, Trump vowed on more than a dozen occasions from 2015 through 2018 that Mexico would be billed for the project, according to a Politifact list.
During his campaign announcement in June 2015, he said he would “build a great, great wall on our southern border and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
A reporter followed up, asking Trump about the evolution of how Mexico would pay for the U.S. project.
“You proposed that in your campaign, sir,” the journalist asked.
“No. They would pay for the wall in a great trade deal. You had the worst trade deal anywhere in the world in NAFTA. We lost thousands of businesses, millions of jobs, millions of jobs,” Trump said.
Over the past year, Trump has begun citing changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement as how he would get Mexico to pay for the wall.
However, last month Trump was thinking about leaving NAFTA in order to push through the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, in its place.
Trump insisted, “One way or another, we’re going to get it [the wall] done.”
From the Southern Border…. pic.twitter.com/Vgsf5nEZUH
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 10, 2019
