TIJUANA, Mexico— There seems to be little consensus in the raging binational debate over the issue of who will pay for the “big, beautiful border wall” that incoming President Donald Trump has promised the American people.
After months of insisting that “Mexico will pay for the wall”—a claim that three living Mexican presidents have resoundingly and repeatedly discredited—Trump now says that the United States will likely front the construction cost, which Mexico will later “reimburse.” That is, pending approval from Congress.
There has been much ado about whether or not it is possible for the United States to force Mexico to pay for a wall that it does not want, nor feel is necessary.