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The problem with the way the border wall promise was made on the campaign trail is that the president was very specific and emphatic in what was promised and how it would be paid for.

Now he has to deal with the fact that the promise and functional reality are at odds. There is no way we can get Mexico to pay for it UP FRONT and there is no publicly known plan to make them pay for it AFTER THE FACT.

Right or wrong he is going to take heat for not fulfilling the promise in the specific way he himself made it.

If there is a plan to make Mexico pay for it as promised that should be shared with the public at large to turn down the heat on this.

If it is going to be paid for by US taxpayers, which is what is being floated by asking for funding in the continuing resolution, or US consumers, which is what an import tariff would be doing, then there better be some serious message craft going on to avoid what will be a campaign issue in the 2018 midterms.

We’re not securing our border from Mexico’s depredations on commission. You’ve heard the Mexicans say, “We’re not paying.” haven’t you?
And it’s not a book Trump is writing where we expect an advance.
President Trump is building the wall, then giving the bill to Mexico. What’s not specific or emphatic about that?
If we have to garnish Mexicans’ wages earned here and sent `home’ (yes, their country); suspend foreign aid (And why did we help Mexico build its wall?); or recover the money by replevin and execution; or the World Bank, whatever it takes, President Trump will do it.
(They could sell us Cancun—for that matter the Yucatan peninsula.)

You don’t think Donald Trump has any experience recovering moneys owed?

Financing the wall isn’t that difficult to understand, unless you don’t want to understand. President Trump made it specific by emphatically stating that they are paying: once we turn a shovel, we are Mexico’s creditor. We’re not screwing around with these people anymore.