
Donald Trump shifted his argument for a border wall away from North America on Wednesday, saying on Twitter that the United States would be following the example of 45 other countries by sealing itself off from Mexico.

'There are now 77 major or significant Walls built around the world, with 45 countries planning or building Walls,' the president tweeted.

'Over 800 miles of Walls have been built in Europe since only 2015. They have all been recognized as close to 100% successful. Stop the crime at our Southern Border!'

It's rare for Trump to embrace the idea of following other nations' lead. He has built his leadership brand, in part, on an uncompromising 'America first' slogan.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday on Twitter that 45 countries either have border walls or plan to build them, as he continues to press his case for the completion of a barrier between the U.S. and Mexico

This map shows 10 existing border walls, including those in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Hungary and India

This photo, taken near the southern kibbutz of Lahav in Isreal two years ago, showed workers building a new section of the separation wall dividing Israel from the West Bank

Donald Trump's vision of the porous U.S.-Mexico border is a steel-slatted wall stretching for hundreds of miles

In a Cabinet meeting this month, he sneered at the idea of global consensus on matters where he has tried to forge a unilateral path.

'I shouldn't be popular in Europe,' Trump said on January 3, adding that if he were popular there he wouldn't be doing his job.

But his accounting of border walls around the globe is correct, according to a 2018 analysis by USA Today.

'[T]here are at least 77 walls or fences around the world — many erected after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon,' the newspaper reported last May.

DailyMail.com identified 65 of them in 2015 as the future president began making a wall construction project one of his loudest campaign promises.

Morocco is separated from the rebel territory of Western Sahara by a 1,700-mile-long earthen 'Berm' that's fortified with countless land mines

Side-effect: This wall separates many in Israel from the most holy sites in Islam, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem

Separately, USA Today reported that since Europe's migrant crisis erupted in 2015, 'at least 800 miles of fences have been erected by Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Slovenia and others.'

The newspaper cited the UN Refugee Agency for its statistics. That agency did not immediately respond to a request for more up-to-date information.

Not all the barriers are sold walls. Many are fences, and at least one is entirely earthen with a military addition.

Along Morocco's border with the ungovernable Western Sahara territory is a sand wall Moroccans call the 'Berm.' It's sorrounded by millions of land mines to keep out rebel fighters from the Polisario Front.

At 1,700 miles in length it's second only to the Great Wall of China.

Trump has been embroiled in a Pennsylvania Avenue standoff since December with congressional Democrats who refuse his demand for $5.7 billion dedicated to border wall construction.

He has painted them as willfully disregarding a humanitarian and national security crisis at the border. On Wednesday he reinforced his belief that the border squabble will be a winning issue for Republicans when he stands for re-election.

'It is becoming more and more obvious that the Radical Democrats are a Party of open borders and crime,' Trump tweeted. 'They want nothing to do with the major Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border. #2020!'

Not always effective: Palestinians were pictured in 2015 climbing over a section of Israel's separation wall to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayer in the al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site, during Ramadan