The biggest promise from President Donald Trump’s campaign was to build a wall along Mexico’s border. Now that promise is at the center of a government shutdown that has left 800,000 employees furloughed.
So how did one lead to the other?
In 2015, President Trump first proposed the border wall. In his presidential candidacy speech, Trump said on June 16, 2015, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems.”
His speech continued, “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me. I’ll build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.”
The next year, Trump’s campaign released a detailed policy agenda and explained how Mexico would pay for the wall. The plan said Section 326 of the USA Patriot Act “issued detailed regulations” under 31 CFR 120.120-121 to block remittance payments from unauthorized residents of the United States back to friends and family in Mexico. The plan goes on to read “It’s an easy decision for Mexico: make a one-time payment of $5 to 10 billion to ensure than $24 billion continues to flow into their country."
In January of 2017, the president tweeted “The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later.”
Almost exactly a year later, the Trump administration began to prepare to ask Congress for funds for the wall.
In a tweet from Jan. 18, 2018, Trump wrote, “The wall will be paid for, directly or indirectly, of through longer term reimbursement, by Mexico, which has a ridiculous $71 billion-dollar trade surplus with the U.S. The $20 billion-dollar wall is ‘peanuts’ compared to what Mexico makes from the U.S. NAFTA is a bad joke.”
On Dec. 19, 2018, Trump stood firm on the promise that Mexico would pay indirectly for the wall.
“Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the wall through the new USMCA, the replacement of NAFTA. Far more money coming to the U.S because of the tremendous dangers at the border, including large scale criminal and drug inflow, the United States Military will build the wall.”
Finally, when negotiations for $5 billion for the wall and border security stalled between Congressional Democrats and the Trump Administration Dec 21, a partial government shutdown went into effect.
The following day, Trump tweeted, “the crisis of illegal activity at our Southern Border is real and will not stop until we build a great Steel Barrier or Wall. Let work begin!”