President Donald Trump insisted on Wednesday that Mexico would “indirectly” pay for the wall along the country’s southern border he desires in a number of tweets that many people found completely baffling.
In the series of tweets, the president also implied that a new trade deal would help pay for the wall—and the U.S. military would build it—and insisted that he would win on the wall “one way or the other.”
“In our Country, so much money has been poured down the drain, for so many years, but when it comes to Border Security and the Military, the Democrats fight to the death. We won on the Military, which is being completely rebuilt. One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!” the president wrote in a series of tweets. “Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for 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!”
In our Country, so much money has been poured down the drain, for so many years, but when it comes to Border Security and the Military, the Democrats fight to the death. We won on the Military, which is being completely rebuilt. One way or the other, we will win on the Wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018
Mexico is paying (indirectly) for the Wall through the new USMCA, the replacement for 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 19, 2018
It’s unclear how the money from the USMCA, the renegotiated trade agreement, would help fund the wall. However, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Tuesday “additional revenue” would “show that Mexico is paying for the wall.”
This is a claim that the president has repeated in the past. Sanders also said that the Trump administration is looking for “existing funding through other agencies” for the wall.
The USMCA, though, still needs to be approved by Congress.
The idea that Mexico would be “indirectly” paying for the wall baffled some people.
https://twitter.com/ThomasIliou/status/1075414275747921921
Leaving aside the policy details of why the USMCA won’t actually pay for the wall, this is just plain ol gibberish. https://t.co/ISxXUZ4eqU
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) December 19, 2018
The president’s assertion that the military would build the wall if it is not funded by Congress also raised some eyebrows.
TRUMP: “Our Southern Border is now secure and will remain that way.”
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2018
ALSO TRUMP: We need a border wall so desperately that I’ll have the military build it if Congress won’t #incoherent pic.twitter.com/gvX60VBe37
Democrats have said they believe military funding of the border wall would not be allowed to happen.
Trump had previously signaled that funding a border wall was a sticking point for agreeing to a deal that would avert a government shutdown.
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