Conway on border: It's time we spent money 'protecting our own'

Despite repeated promises to the contrary from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Thursday morning that Mexico will foot the bill for her boss’ promised border wall.

But Conway, interviewed by host Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show, also said it is “high time” that the U.S. spend money protecting its own border.


“President Trump has been very clear and consistent on this point, Matt. He’s going to build the wall, Mexico will pay for it. Whether they pay for it straight-out, or it's reimbursed later on after congressional funding,” Conway said. “It's about being a sovereign nation. The United States of America spends billions of dollars protecting other countries' borders. It's high time we spend some money protecting our own.”

Conway’s comments came one day after President Donald Trump signed a pair of executive orders aimed at fulfilling the hard-line promises he made on immigration during the campaign. Included in those orders was a provision to initiate the construction of a “physical barrier” along America’s southern border with Mexico, as well as increased resources for border enforcement and directions to strip federal funding from so-called sanctuary states and cities that harbor undocumented immigrants.

Throughout the campaign, Trump promised that Mexico would pay for the wall, but since winning last year’s presidential election he has said U.S. taxpayers would fund the project for the sake of expediency and then be paid back by Mexico. In an interview that aired Wednesday evening, Trump told ABC News anchor David Muir that payment from Mexico “will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form.”

Conway declined to elaborate during her “Today” show appearance on what “complicated” form the payment from Mexico might take, telling Lauer that she understood what Trump was referring to but would not clarify because the president “wants to give the deference to his meeting with the Mexican president and other Mexican officials before he announces that.”

“I mean, welcome to Washington,” she said. “It's hardly breaking news to talk about the complication of funding new projects. And that's what this is.”