Over the past few months, Donald Trump has seem to abandon his vow that Mexico would pay for the border wall. Then this morning he tweeted a bizarre equation, a roundabout way, that he says Mexico would still pay for it.
I often stated, “One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.” This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2018
What Trump did with that tweet was seemingly undo his threat to shut down the Government if Congress didn’t fund the wall. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer was quick to respond to this saying, “Mr. President: If you say Mexico is going to pay for the wall (which I don’t believe), then I guess we don’t have to! Let’s fund the government.”
The soon-to-be Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi also reacted, taking it a step further by schooling Trump on what the trade money should actually be spent on (watch above):
“It doesn’t make any sense. Basically what he is saying, any benefit our economy might have from a trade agreement, a revised trade agreement with Mexico and Canada would be spent on the wall instead of growing our economy and increasing paychecks for our workers. The Ameican people are still paying the price. Mexico is not paying for this wall. But maybe he doesn’t understand how a trade agreement works, for him to say such a thing.”
There is no consensus that provisions in the new trade deal would result in Mexico funding a border wall, and former Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray tweeted following the announcement of an initial agreement on the USMCA that Mexico would never pay for the wall, even through the new deal.
OLD: Mexico will pay for the wall
NEW: Mexico will reimburse later
NEWER: The wall will pay for itself
NEWEST: Nafta 2.0 savings on trade with Mexico will pay for the wall pic.twitter.com/5FAqjVHRBZ
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) December 13, 2018