Trump’s Border Blunders
On the day he met with congressional leaders to discuss the budget stalemate, President Donald Trump repeated several false and misleading claims about the Southwest border and the wall he wants to build:
- Trump tweeted that “Mexico is paying for the Wall” through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. But, as we wrote last month, economists told us there are not enough new benefits to the U.S. in the new trade agreement — which has yet to be ratified by Congress — to pay for the wall.
- In the same tweet, Trump falsely claimed that “Much of the Wall has already been renovated or built.” Very little new fencing has been constructed under Trump, and none of it is the type he promised during the campaign.
- At a cabinet meeting, Trump claimed the wall “probably would pay for itself in a month or two because we lose pretty close to $250 billion on illegal immigration.” There is no support for that figure, which is double another disputed estimate from a conservative group. Plus, such figures are for immigrants already living in the country illegally.
- The president also repeated his claim that the wall is needed to “halt [the] deadly inflow of drugs,” even though experts — including those within his administration — say
