President Trump speaking as he announced plans to build the $1.6billion southern border wall with Mexico on Sunday (Reuters)

Donald Trump will start building the southern border wall with Mexico this Monday, he revealed at a press conference Friday.

The President unveiled the speedy start date as he unveiled a $1.3trillion spending bill whose size he said he was upset at.

Coronavirus news live: Boris Johnson to address nation and lockdown latest

Speaking to reporters in the White House, Mr Trump said he had allocated ‘$1.6 billion dollars for the wall, starting immediately.’

It is set to begin construction on Monday, just over a week after Trump inspected prototypes in San Diego.


Trump claimed then that wanted the barrier to be see-through so border security guards could see what was going on on the other side of it.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

Trump insisted he was unhappy with signing such an enormous spending bill – but claimed he did so to guarantee the safety of the American people (AFP)

Trump made the wall announcement ten days after visiting prototypes in San Diego

He signed the gigantic bill shortly after threatening to veto it because it failed to allocate cash for the wall.



Trump was also unhappy that it failed to come to a solution on DACA, which aims to protect young people in the U.S. illegally because of their parents.

He went on to announce $654.6 billion in military funding, and said it would give the United States ‘the most powerful nuclear force on Earth.’

Trump used national security as an excuse for why he signed the bill, saying: ‘There are a lot of things I’m unhappy about with this bill.

‘As a matter of national security, I’ve signed this omnibus budget bill.’

‘There are a lot of things that we shouldn’t have had in this bill, but were in a sense forced to if we want to build our military. ‘I say to Congress, I will never sign another bill like this again. ‘I’m not going to do it again. Nobody read it. It’s only hours old. ‘Some people don’t even know what’s in it.’