Trump’s messaging on funding for his „big, beautiful wall“ has changed course dramatically since his original calls in 2016
It was a common refrain for then-candidate Donald Trump during his oftentimes raucous campaign rallies: „Mexico is going to pay for the wall, 100 percent.“ But with President Trump heading back to the drawing board, once again demanding funding for his long-promised border wall in the new White House budget requests, there’s still no sign that Mexico will pay for any of it.
While Mr. Trump made the claim that Mexico would pay for the wall at least 15 times over the course of the 2016 campaign, he’s changed his tune regarding just how they would be contributing to the wall project. Back in 2016, Mr. Trump suggested he would force Mexico pay for the border wall by threatening to cut off billions of dollars in money transfers that Mexicans who are living in the U. S. send home.
„Mexico currently receive $24 billion in remittance payments annually from the United States. This provides substantial leverage for the United States to obtain from Mexico the funds necessary to pay for a border wall,“ the campaign said in a statement at the time. A memo outlining the plan appeared on a since-deleted page on his campaign website.
But since Mr. Trump upset victory in the presidential election, the Mexican government has been adamant that it won’t pay for the wall.
