President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday that directs the Department of Homeland Security to start following through on his signature campaign promise: Building an "impenetrable and beautiful" wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
But the other part of Trump's wall pledge—his assertion that Mexico will foot the bill—remains very much in doubt. White House spokesperson Sean Spicer told reporters that "one way or another, as the president said before, Mexico will pay for it," but Trump later backpedaled and said the funds would likely have to be repaid "at a later date." Mexican President Enrique Peña-Nieto has scoffed at the notion, and considered canceling his visit to Washington next week over Trump's wall decree.
The projected cost of the wall ranges from $8 billion, Trump's own low-end estimate, to $38 billion, which is the best guess by MIT engineers for what it would take to erect a 50-foot-tall concrete barrier 1,000 miles long, as Trump has said he envisions, though his descriptions have varied wildly.
Builders are already salivating over the spoils.
But even those price tags might underestimate the actual cost. The complicating factor, as many others have already pointed out, is that Trump will have to acquire much of the land for the wall from private property owners in Texas, which could end up costing a fortune in legal fees.
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