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(Image: DS)

The Donald is destined for the White House after being inaugrated as the 45th President of the United States.

Aside from claiming Mexico will “100% pay” for the “tall, physical” southern border wall, the eccentric billionaire has been pretty sketchy on the details.

Much like the rest of his US presidential campaign pledges, even his biggest ideas for transforming the country have been small on the specifics.

In typical Trump style, the outspoken Republican has shrugged off criticism, placing immigration – and the construction of the wall – at the forefront of his programme.

But according to research from a top civil engineer, keeping out immigrant Mexicans who, in his famous words, are “rapists” bringing “drugs” and “crime” to the US, may prove more difficult than he ever imagined.

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In his mission to “make America great again”, he first announced the wall in a rabble rousing speech in August 2015 during the race to become the official Republican nominee.

Claiming to be a “great builder”, he said: “So you take precast plank.

“It comes 30 feet long, 40 feet long, 50 feet long. You see the highways where they can span 50, 60 feet, even longer than that, right?

“And do you a beautiful nice precast plank with beautiful everything. Just perfect."

But what started out as a pie-in-the-sky project, soon turned into a key plank of his presidential campaign.

From barren desert to the lush banks of the Rio Grande, the US-Mexico border runs around 1,900 miles through unforgiving and mostly uninhabited terrain.

Around 650 miles of the border is already covered in patchy fencework and concrete structures – although many areas are exposed.

Border patrol officials are already in place, but Trump wants to turn the US into an impenetrable fortress – slashing illegal immigration to zero.

Tadeusz Zwoliński, a civil engineer from The Warsaw University of Technology, told Daily Star Online many aspects of the project make it “impractical” if not “impossible” to deliver.

But despite the obvious hurdles, the engineer has joined forces with Mateusz Mucha, CEO of Omni Calculator, to hammer out the details on Trump’s behalf.

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From a political standpoint, Mucha, 37, said the possibiloty of building the wallis unlikely.

He said the transition from a “generalised election promise” to a “scrutinised, real project” would face many speed bumps.

He said: “For practical reasons it’s simply is a bad idea – it’d be extremely expensive and not very effective.

“The only thing that it would have going on for it is that it would be impressive and symbolic - it could serve as the Trump’s presidential legacy.

“Such projects often serve as monuments built to commemorate political leaders on every level of the government.”

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Zwoliński, 24, said the wall will mainly consist of “prefabricated elements made of reinforced concrete”.

At £287 ($350) a pop, Trump’s precast planks have also been factored into the plans.

Due to the hot climate in the south, Zwoliński said it would be almost impossible to deliver fresh concrete to the site.

Therefore, “elements” of the wall – each ranging from five to 15 metres in height – will have to be made elsewhere and then shipped to the site to be pieced together.

Trump’s height estimates ranged from 35ft to 90ft.

But in the spirit of cutting costs, Mucha downgraded the height to a modest 40ft – 15ft taller than the Great Wall of China.

An excavator to dig the hole, a crane to set it in place, a bulldozer to bury the structure and a few regular workers to assist would be vital to construction.

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Trump has repeatedly stated that the wall should be as “inexpensive” as possible.

With that in mind, Zwoliński said corners would have to be cut, meaning “no fancy stuff like video monitoring or even barbed wire”.

Factoring in core parts of the project – such as wall panels, transport, assembly, and maintenance – Mucha estimates the costs could skyrocket to an eye-watering £28billion ($32billion) over time.

He said: “But that’s not all – land needs to be purchased, roads need to be built in the middle of the desert, the whole project needs to be planned and administered.”

Ironically, Mucha said the biggest cost could be the fall in tax and spending from immigrants no longer pumping into the economy.

He said: “Most immigrants come as adults, meaning another country has already invested money in them.

“When they come to the US, they’re ready to become productive; paying tax and spend money, helping to grow the economy.”

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According to Zwoliński, the Washington Post quoted an estimator and economist, who claims it would take 40 thousand people at least four years to erect the fortress.

Mucha said most illegal immigrants enter the US legally and then fail to leave once their visas expire.

But even monolithic walls can’t stop people from seeking a better life for themselves, Mucha added.

He said: “If people want something really bad, you won’t really stop them by making one of the options harder.”

Trump has repeatedly – and emphatically – insisted Mexico will foot the bill for his "beautiful border wall".

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto told Trump in a face-to-face meeting in Mexico City that Mexico would not pay for it.

But Trump hit back hours later, claiming Mexico will pay for the wall – adding “they just don’t know it yet”.

Asked whether any of his solutions were realistic, he told the Washington Post: "It's realistic if you know something about the art of negotiating. If you have a bunch of clowns negotiating, it's not realistic."

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How could the money be used instead?

Using the Donald Trump Wall Calculator, Zwoliński and Mucha have suggested ways in which the £28 billion could be used instead.

Feeding America’s 1.56 million homeless for the next seven years, and sending 50 million African kids to school were among their suggestions.

Clean drinking water provided to696,780,957

HIV patients treated94,895

College tuition fees paid3,812,129

People protected from malaria15,835,930,830

People insured in the US90,256,601

Trees planted328,670,263

Chromebooks bought for schools124,871,139

Hospital beds "built" in the US23,226

Hospital beds "built" in India1,161,302

Veterans cared for4,496,022