Monday on CNN’s “Wolf,” network chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta said President Donald Trump had given up on his promise that the Mexican government “would help finance the construction of the wall.”

Acosta said, “We hear him talk about this out on the campaign trail from time to time, and what he says is that he will in some way get Mexico to pay for this wall somewhere down the road. I suspect what you’re going to hear from his advisers when this question comes up is they’re going to say, well, some of the money that will go toward the wall will be in the form of some of this production that they think will come back to the United States as part of this renegotiated trade agreement.”

He continued, “But in terms of how the president positioned this during the campaign, where there would be some sort of expenditure on the part of the Mexican government that would help finance the construction of the wall on the Mexican border, Wolf, we’ve heard from not a single White House official who has ever explained how that is ever going to happen. So it sounds like for all practical purposes the president has given up on that. But he’s not given up on it as a campaign tool. As you know, we hear about his vision for a wall at just about every campaign rally. And he claims falsely that what he presented to the voters during the campaign is being built on the U.S./Mexico border. Of course, we know, Wolf, there’s very little as far as wall construction going on down there. There are fence repairs and that sort of thing, but nothing like what he promised during the campaign.”

Wolf Blitzer added, “During his campaign rallies in recent months he often talks about the wall. He promises the wall will be built. He promises there will be funding for the wall but no longer says Mexico will pay for the wall, which always generated a huge amounting of applause at his rallies.”

(h/t Grabien)

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