Report: Donald Trump Plans To Ask American Taxpayers To Foot Bill For Border Wall


Donald Trump and his Republican-backed Congress are rumored to be weighing the idea of having American taxpayers foot the estimated $14 billion bill for his long-proposed wall along the Mexican border.

Trump made boasts guaranteeing that he would force the Mexican government to pay for the wall during his upset campaign win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton a staple of his platform. But now, several media outlets are reporting representatives of the president-elect have privately told Republican lawmakers that they hope to use a Bush-era tax law and the support of the GOP-backed legislature to get the job done.

Reportedly, the plan calls for cloaking the expenditure into a must-pass spending bill.

“If tied to the rest of government funding, it’s much harder for the Democrats to stop, and by the way, I think it’s much harder for Democrats to vote against it if what you’re doing is authorizing funding for an existing law,” Indiana Republican Rep. Luke Messer recently told reporters.

A greater unknown in the rumored equation is what sort of reaction many of Trump’s most ardent supporters may have to him breaking one of his biggest promises, particularly so early in his administration.

President-elect Donald Trump attends a stop on his ‘USA Thank You Tour 2016 in Orlando, Florida. [Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]

In addition, forcing such a pivotal early showdown with Democrats could lead to them shuttering the government in an all-out bloodbath for both parties.

Meanwhile, House Republicans point to a 2006 instance where several Democrats, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, joined in support of a law passed by President George W. Bush approving the construction of some 700-miles of “physical barrier” along the Mexican border.

Though that bill was never fully implemented, Republican lawmakers supportive of Trump are convinced it provides him with an avenue to move forward with a similarly proposed idea.

In the end, the price of the project could be even far greater than the $14 billion estimate that’s been bandied about, as that price tag doesn’t account for maintenance expenses, purchasing prices for private property and wages for additional border patrol agents.

During his campaign run, Trump left little wiggle room in assuring that Mexico would pay for the 2,000-mile-long construction, rallying huge campaign crowds with such fiery rhetoric as “build the wall” and “100 percent.”

All the while, many experts and the likes of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto dismissed such talk as unrealistic and irresponsible.

The New York Daily News reports that Trump campaign officials did not respond to a request seeking comment about the apparent new developments.

Still, that hasn’t stopped the criticism from pouring in, with many voters and political leaders alike taking to social media to rip the president-elect over his perceived deception.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally on May 25, 2016 in Anaheim, California. [Image by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]

“Trump may ask whoever he wants, but still neither myself nor Mexico are going to pay for his racist monument,” former Mexico president Vicente Fox Quesada posted to Twitter.

“Another promise he can’t keep.”

Former George H.W. Bush strategist Rick Wilson went as far as to predict the wall will never see the light of day.

“Mexico isn’t paying for it,” he posted to Twitter.

“He’s not going to deport 15 million people. Y’all got played.”

Finally, President Obama’s onetime top speechwriter Jon Favreau took on a matter-of-fact tone, tweeting, “Congress paying for the Wall means that we’re paying for the Wall. Pony up, America.”

Trump has also vowed to instantly deport millions of undocumented immigrants upon taking office later this month.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” he said in an interview just last November’s election.

Trump later added after securing the border, his administration would make a “determination” on all the remaining undocumented immigrants across the country.

[Featured Image by Mark Wallheiser/Getty Images]

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