It’s becoming even more difficult than ever to keep track of Trump’s changing narrative around his vanity project, the border wall, but a few points remain consistent. Note: that doesn’t mean those points are accurate. It simply means that Trump is consistently telling the same lie over and over again.
Trump TODAY on Mexico paying for a wall: "I never said this and I never meant they're going to write out a check."
Trump campaign website, AUGUST 2016: "It's an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5-10 billion…" pic.twitter.com/3Wt6iJGvCc
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) January 10, 2019
One point that Trump is sticking to these days after three years of shifting around is that Mexico is paying for a wall through his new trade deal, the USMCA. That’s a far cry from Mexico paying for the wall and taxpayers not paying at all, but ever since Trump signed the agreement, that’s what he’s tried to sell to his supporters.
On Thursday, Trump became angry when asked once again why the government is shut down because Congress refuses to give him five billion dollars in taxpayer money for his border wall that he promised Mexico would pay for.
‘Obviously I never said and never meant, they’re going to write out a check. Mexico will pay for the wall indirectly.’
Actually, he did say that. He told supporters on his website that he would demand a one-time lump sum payment of five to 10 billion dollars in border wall funding directly from Mexico or he’d do all manner of mean things to them.
‘It’s an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5- 10 billion to ensure that $24 billion continues to flow into their country year after year.’
The USMCA:
1. hasn't passed Congress.
2. wouldn't go in effect until 2020.
3. has no wall funding provisions.
4. generates revenue from American taxpayers, not from Mexico.
5. will mean Mexico is still not paying for Trump's wall.https://t.co/3fsAAwEY3H
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 10, 2019
The USMCA, which is not a whole new agreement but an updated version of NAFTA, has not yet been approved by Congress, so Trump’s insistence that the USMCA would indirectly pay for the wall (it won’t, those funds would not replenish the U.S. Treasury after Trump plunders is for five billion dollars) is a pie-in-the-sky promise.
The failed businessman, however, insists that he knows best and that the border wall is the only way. Technology is great and all, but Trump is a “professional at technology” and he knows that’s just not enough.
‘There’s only one way. You can have all the technology in the world, I’m a professional at technology, but if you don’t have a steel barrier or a wall of some kind, strong, powerful, you’re gonna have human trafficking, you’re gonna have drugs pouring over the border, you’re gonna have MS-13 and the gangs coming, and we’ve done record apprehensions. We’re doing a great job.’
Trump’s claim that Mexico is paying for the wall through the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement doesn’t add up. https://t.co/SYVLexdkaH pic.twitter.com/O3JdImgPAA
— Vox (@voxdotcom) January 9, 2019
After all the rest of the lies, Trump also said that, in his learned estimate that includes no expert analysis or factual basis, the wall will “pay for itself” in terms of money saved on border security personnel.
‘I really believe that a steel barrier or wall would pay for itself every three or four months and maybe better than that in terms of overall.’
Trump also believed that he would start work on building a wall immediately after his election, that he could make Mexico send a lump sum payment to fund that wall, that he would repeal the ACA “on day one,” and that Rasmussen polls are the most accurate, so why is anyone trusting his opinion these days?
See Trump’s full meltdown below:
Featured image screenshot via YouTube
