Trump: Mexico border wall construction to begin 'in months'

President Donald Trump’s border wall is coming soon — “as soon as we can, as soon as we can physically do it” — he said Wednesday, pinning the timetable for construction to begin within “months.”

“I would say in months, yeah. I would say in months,” the president told ABC News’ David Muir in an excerpt of an interview to air later Wednesday. “Certainly, planning is starting immediately.”


Trump’s proposal for a border wall that Mexico will ultimately pay for has been a staple of his campaign since the day he launched his White House bid on June 16, 2015. From Day One, Trump had said Mexico would pay for his massive border wall, a claim that has evolved into an insistence that Mexico will actually reimburse the U.S. in some form.

“We’re gonna be starting those negotiations relatively soon, and we will be in a form reimbursed by Mexico, which I’ve always said,” Trump claimed Wednesday, although he only recently began saying the payment would be a reimbursement.

Trump, who will visit the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday afternoon, is expected to a sign a set of immigration-related executive actions, including one to commence his border wall by directing federal funds for construction. The president’s executive actions are also expected to include tripling the number of immigration enforcement agents, increasing the number of Customs and Border Protection staff by 5,000 people, a temporary ban on most refugees and a suspension of visas from Syria and six other countries in the Middle East.

In his interview with ABC News, Trump maintained that Mexico will “absolutely, 100 percent” pay the U.S. back but refused to explicitly concede that taxpayers will foot the bill on the front end. “All it is is we’ll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we’d make from Mexico,” he said.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto vowed this month that his country will never pay for Trump’s wall. “It is evident that we have differences with the new United States government on some issues, such as a wall that Mexico absolutely will not pay for. At no time will we accept anything that goes against our dignity as a country and our dignity as Mexicans,” Peña Nieto told Mexican diplomats two weeks ago. He added, “Basic principles such as sovereignty, the national interest and the protection of our citizens are non-negotiable.”

Trump, however, dismissed Peña Nieto’s rhetoric, contending that the Mexican president has no choice but to talk tough and arguing that a border wall would be fruitful for both countries.

“I think he has to say that. He has to say that,” Trump said. “But I’m just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form, and you have to understand, what I'm doing is good for the United States. It's also gonna be good for Mexico. We wanna have a very stable, very solid Mexico.”