Trump has long said that Mexico would pay for the wall. When asked about how that would happen in the past, he suggesting making them pay for it through trade tariffs.
Now he’s apparently mulling new ways to make Mexico pay for the wall, except it won’t actually be the Mexican government paying for it:
FOX NEWS – While Donald Trump doubled down this week on his vow to make Mexico pay for his proposed southern border wall, his campaign is reported to be weighing options that don’t necessarily involve the seemingly far-fetched scenario of the Mexican government handing America a great, big check.
LifeZette first reported that the Republican presidential nominee and his top advisers are looking at using assets seized from drug cartels and other traffickers. This reportedly could involve establishing a “joint border security fund” — holding seized assets from crackdowns on both sides of the border – for border construction and maintenance.
Trump, asked Thursday by Fox News about the report, did not deny the option is on the table.
“There are many ways that they can pay for the wall,” Trump said, calling it a “negotiation.”
But he again insisted, “The United States will not be paying for the wall. Mexico will be paying for the wall.”
So the cartel will be paying for the wall? Well I’m ok with that, but that’s not exactly what he was suggesting before.
Trump surrogate Ben Carson is also floating a different idea, that we pay for the wall with ‘savings’ from border enforcement:
Speaking with Fox News, Carson said money saved from enforcing the border could be used – though he did not elaborate on what level of savings the federal government could expect, particularly when Trump is proposing spending more money on border security resources.
“Recognize that a lot of money is going to be saved by enforcing our borders, by not, you know, giving various types of benefits to people who are here illegally,” Carson said. “That money is money that we otherwise would not have had and that can be applied to the wall and various other things. That’s I believe the spirit in which that comment is made. I don’t think Mexico is going to write a check out and say here, pay for the wall.”
It would seem clear that Trump is already backing down (behind the scenes) from his original idea of compelling the state of Mexico paying for the wall, because he knows he could never actually fulfill that promise.
Looks like we have all the makings of another Trump flip-flop — coming soon!