Trump shut down the government to force taxpayers to fund his border wall after promising over 200 times that Mexico would pay for it.
Washington Post: “From his announcement speech to the election, he declared 212 times that Mexico would pay for the wall, according to the comprehensive record of Trump’s speeches, interviews and tweets maintained by factba.se. That works out to almost every two days during the campaign. Mexico refuses to pay for the wall, and Trump has engineered a government shutdown to try to force Congress to appropriate the necessary funds.”
Trump falsely claimed that he never said “Mexico would write a check” for the border wall, when he wrote a campaign memo promising to force Mexico to make a $5-10 billion “one-time payment.”
Trump: “When, during the campaign, I would say Mexico is going to pay for it, obviously I never said this and I never meant they are going to write out a check.”
Washington Post: “In a two-page memo to The Washington Post, Trump outlined for the first time how he would seek to force Mexico to pay for his 1,000-mile border fence, which Trump has made a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and which has been repeatedly scoffed at by current and former Mexican leaders… The threat would be withdrawn if Mexico made ‘a one-time payment of $5-10 billion’ to pay for the border wall, he wrote.”
Trump continues to claim Mexico will pay for the border wall, but the White House admitted taxpayers would have to foot the bill.
Trump: “I said they’re going to pay for it. They are.”
CNN: “US taxpayers will foot the bill for a border wall, White House strategic communications director Mercedes Schlapp acknowledged in an interview on Wednesday. ‘Yes,’ Schlapp said when pressed by CNN’s Jim Sciutto about taxpayers paying for the wall.”