Trump Does Major U-Turn On Mexico Paying for The Wall
The fact that Trump is completely unable to get his wall built was always a near guarantee. Mexico was never, ever going to pay for the wall. Trump is as Trump does - he just threw that phrase to his crowd.
There’s a speech by Matthew McCaughnohey at the Oscars, that he made when he won his award for his role in Dallas Buyers Club. In it, he talks about how his hero, the person he aspires to be, is himself in the future. That picturing his dream future self means that by the time he’s next week’s McCaughnohey, he will have upped his game. I like to think Trump uses that same model, too.
In a stunning video - is anything from Trump really stunning at this point anymore, though - Trump does a complete U-turn, a major lie, on his big campaign promise that “Mexico will pay for the wall!”
The US government is currently in a partial shutdown over the fact that Trump has absolutely refused to sign a must pass spending bill to fund many routine government operations, unless it had has $5.7bill funding in it for his ridiculous wall. Both the Republicans and Democrats voted in both houses to pass the spending bill without the wall, but just before Christmas, Trump threw a tantrum and changed his mind, now demanding his party not allow a budget to pass without wall money.
The fact that Trump is completely unable to get his wall built was always a near guarantee. Mexico was never, ever going to pay for the wall. Trump is as Trump does - he just threw that phrase to his crowd, regardless of how devoid it is from reality, and they loved it so much he just kept going and going and going with it. Trump 101. The Democrats also were always unlikely to put critical money into that wall. I say unlikely cause the only thing more dangerous to underestimate than how vile a Republican politician’s ideas can be is how quickly a Democrat will help to pass it.
So, Trump is stuck in a mess of his own making - his base was salivating for that wall, and for making the brown people themselves pay for it. So he does the only thing he knows how to do in a crisis. Lie.
"When during the campaign, I would say 'Mexico is going to pay for it,' obviously, I never said this, and I never meant they're gonna write out a check, I said they're going to pay for it. They are," he claimed on Thursday as he prepared to leave the White House for the southern border.
A ridiculous, unimaginably big lie. On top of barking the phrase at his campaign rally crowds over and over to imply Mexico would fork over the cash, Trump’s campaign put directly into their manifesto for the 2016 election that if President, Trump would put a ban on Mexicans in the US sending money back to their families in Mexico, unless Mexico made a one off payment to fund the wall. "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," his memo said.
But will his supporters believe you if you tell them he lied, straight to their faces, about one of their most important policies? Hell no. I saw a funny status today going around, that said “Why doesn't Trump just tell his sheeple that he already built the wall. It's not like they'll think he's lying or anything.” And that right there is a mighty half of all you need about the right wing in America, today.