Eyes Roll After Trump Claims He ‘Never Said’ Mexico Would Directly Pay For Wall: ‘Blatantly False’

Eyes Roll After Trump Claims He ‘Never Said’ Mexico Would Directly Pay For Wall: ‘Blatantly False’

In a typically off-the-rails press spray before he headed to the border for a photo-op in his continued effort to rally public support for a border wall, President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted that he actually “never said” his repeated promise that Mexico would directly pay for the wall.

“Obviously, I never said this and I never meant they’re going to write out a check,” Trump told reporters. “I said they’re going to pay for it. They are.”

The president claimed that he always meant that the United States’ southern neighbor would pay for the wall through the renegotiated NAFTA deal while further noting that the wall would “pay for itself every three or four months and maybe even better than that.”

To call this gaslighting would be an insult to that term. Besides making it an oft-repeated feature of his campaign rallies, the president put in writing specific policies during the 2016 presidential race that promised Mexico would literally write a check to the United States to help pay for the wall.

That section of Trump’s campaign website was titled “COMPELLING MEXICO TO PAY FOR THE WALL” and stated that the Trump administration would demand a “one-time payment of $5-10 billion to ensure that $24 billion continues to flow into their country year after year.” The Trump campaign further said that they would receive additional funds from Mexico from the wall via “remittance payments derived from illegal wages,” increase fees on visas and raise tariffs.

Well, it didn’t take long for reporters, journalists and observers to take the president to task for spreading this obvious lie.

Politico tweeted out a fact-check that pointed out Trump’s assertion that a new trade deal with Mexico would pay for the wall was incorrect, as any gains from would go to private companies and individuals.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto, meanwhile, called the whole thing “Orwellian.”

Justin Baragona

Justin Baragona is the founder/publisher of Contemptor and a contributor to The Daily Beast. He was previously the Cable News Correspondent for Mediaite and prior to starting Contemptor, he worked on the editorial staff of PoliticusUSA. During that time, he had his work quoted by USA Today and BBC News, among others. Justin began his published career as a political writer for 411Mania. He resides in St. Louis, MO with his wife and pets.

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