Desperate Trump Now Claims The Wall Will Pay For Itself

Trump concrete wall

President Donald Trump is so desperately to get approval for his wall that he is once again claiming that it will pay for itself.

First, Trump claimed Mexico would pay the wall. Then Trump demanded American taxpayers fund the wall. He then claimed that Mexico is already paying for the wall through the new NAFTA. Then he said that the wall is already built before shutting down the government in order to force taxpayers to fund it.

Now he is claiming that the wall will pay for itself.

In a Sunday morning Twitter tirade, Trump began by using quotes by former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In fact, both voted for the Secure Fence Act of 2006 in the U.S. Senate, but have since changed their minds about border barriers because of government data showing that building a barrier along the border is too expensive and did not work to curb illegal immigration.

It turns out that just fencing across the border would have cost $50 billion due to the initial construction of a fence and yearly maintenance. That said, a wall would cost far more. Plus, the Congressional Research Service found that migrants just found news ways to enter the country, making any kind of barrier useless.

But Trump went on to claim that his wall would stop 99 percent of illegal immigration and that it would pay for itself.

Again, migrants simply found other ways to enter the country when fencing and steel slat barriers were built, including tunnels, boats and planes. And people can still climb walls.

Even the Cato Institute says that Trump’s wall won’t stop illegal immigration.

It’s just not a practical solution and it certainly won’t “pay for itself.”

Trump’s claim is widely disputed and does not take into account the billions of tax dollars our country would lose since immigrants and their children have a significant positive impact on tax revenues. In short, stopping illegal immigration would deprive the United States of hundreds of billions of dollars every year. That means the wall would cause the United States to lose money on top of the many billions spent to build it. The government shutdown alone has already cost billions of dollars and you can bet that Trump will keep shutting it down every time he wants more money for his vanity project.

The bottom line is that Trump is lying as usual. His wall won’t stop illegal immigrants and it certainly won’t stop drugs and crime. And it won’t pay itself, but cause an economic loss that will be felt for years and decades to come.

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