“The dishonest media is not reporting that any money spent, for the sake if [sic] speed, on building the Great Wall, will be paid back by Mexico,” Trump tweeted. | Getty Trump slams media on border wall: Mexico will pay us back

From the very beginning of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would build a wall along America’s southern border with Mexico and that the Mexican government, not U.S. taxpayers would pay for it.

Friday morning, Trump said Americans may have to foot the bill, only for expediency’s sake, and wait for Mexico to reimburse its northern neighbor.


“The dishonest media is not reporting that any money spent, for the sake if [sic] speed, on building the Great Wall, will be paid back by Mexico,” Trump wrote on Twitter Friday morning.

The president-elect appeared to be responding to reports out Thursday that his team and Republican lawmakers have considered relying on a 2006 law signed by then-President George W. Bush that provided for the construction of 700 miles-worth of a “physical barrier” along the southern border. That barrier was never constructed, but the law did not include a sunset provision, allowing Republicans to seek funding for a program already on the books.

The GOP could tie money for Trump’s wall into a must-pass spending bill that would put Democrats in the position of having to shut down the government if they choose to oppose it.

The shift, from forcing Mexico to pay to sending the Mexican government a bill once the wall is built, alters one of Trump’s most powerful campaign trail talking points. His promise to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it elicited huge cheers at his supersized rallies, where attendees chanted “build the wall” as he smiled on stage. The Manhattan billionaire began his candidacy by highlighting immigration, promising to take a hardline stand at his kick-off event in Trump Tower and throughout the primary, before softening somewhat on the issue in the general election.







It is not the first time that Trump has offered such an explanation. He said in a speech in late October in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that his promised border wall would be funded by legislation but urged his supporters not to worry because such a law would be passed, “with the full understanding that the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall, okay?”

