It’s official, after over a year of campaigning behind the promise of building a wall to separate the United States and Mexico, President Trump signed an executive order today making the campaign rally chants a tentative reality.
Trump foreshadowed the action on Twitter last night when the President used his favorite social media platform to tell that world about his big day on national security, adding “we will build the wall.”
Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
According to NPR, the wall is just one portion of an executive order titled Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements that also includes hiring more border patrol agents and expanding immigration detention centers.
The increased spending on border security comes only days after Trump put a freeze on all federal hiring and froze all EPA contract and grant funding.
As for the campaign promise that Mexico would pay for the wall that divides the two countries? Trump went on ABC News and when asked if American taxpayers would be paying for the wall, told anchor David Muir that “Ultimately it will come out of what’s happening with Mexico, we’re gonna be starting those negotiations relatively soon, and we will be, in a form, reimbursed by Mexico.”
Trump confirmed that the wall will initially be built with money from U.S. taxpayers, and although the President claims that Mexico will eventually pay for the barrier, Mexican President Enrique Nieto has flat out denied claims, saying that paying for such a wall “goes against our dignity as a country, and against our dignity as Mexicans.”
President Trump tells @ABC News: Mexico will “absolutely” reimburse U.S. for border wall. https://t.co/MgcLG1hJH0 pic.twitter.com/NlxLs4N6SF
— ABC News (@ABC) January 25, 2017
Trump told Muir that construction on the wall will begin as soon as possible, which he expects to be “within months.”
Only time will tell if the wall will ever truly come to fruition in its intended, fortress-like form, and even still if Mexico will actually pay for it.