What Mr. Trump Said

“When — during the campaign, I would say, “Mexico is going to pay for it.” Obviously, I never said this and I never meant they’re going to write out a check. I said, “They’re going to pay for it.” They are. They are paying for it with the incredible deal we made, called the United States, Mexico, and Canada USMCA deal.”

— in remarks to reporters on Thursday

False.

Mr. Trump is rewriting the premise of his central campaign promise, a pledge that he has repeated hundreds of times and has said would be “so easy” to fulfill.

Though he is often vague about how Mexico would foot the bill, Mr. Trump has offered occasional specifics, including compelling Mexico to make a one-time payment of $5 billion to $10 billion.

Before he officially declared his candidacy, Mr. Trump proposed to “deduct costs from Mexican foreign aid” in an April 2015 Twitter post.

As early as August 2015, his campaign website stated: “Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards — of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options].”