The Wall: ‘I don’t want to wait, get it started,’ Trump says

At his New York press conference Wednesday, Trump said that Pence is “leading an effort to get final approvals” through several federal agencies and Congress.

“I don’t want to wait,” he said, promising to work fast with Congress where several committees are eager to help. “I want to get the wall started. I don’t want to wait a year and a half until I make a deal Mexico. And we probably will have a deal sooner than that,” he said, adding that his talks with Mexico have gone well.

Trump was unclear on how the wall would be paid for, but indicated that Mexico, or Mexicans, in some way would cover much of the bill.

“Mexico, in some form, there many different forms, will reimburse us. And they will reimburse us for the cost of the wall,” he said.

Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, recently told Secrets that there are several ways to get some of the wall paid for by Mexico or Mexicans, including raising the fees on crossing the border.

And some businesses and states are eager to help in the effort. Just last week, a long-serving Massachusetts sheriff offered his prison inmates to help build the anti-immigrant wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

It was not widely known that Pence had been put in charge of lining up support for the wall project.

Trump said that completing the wall is a prime example of making good on his campaign promises.

He recalled the applause he would receive during campaign events when he talked about the wall. “I would say we are going to build a wall, (and people) would go crazy,” he said. “I say, ‘Who’s going to pay for the wall?’ And they will scream out — ‘Mexico.'”

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]