Trump Makes A Bewildering Confession About Who's Paying For His Border Wall

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

09/09/2020 03:03 am ET

The president seems to admit Mexico hasn’t paid for it, as he previously claimed. So he’s cooked up a new plan.

By Ed Mazza

President Donald Trump on Tuesday seemed to finally admit that Mexico hasn’t paid to build the border wall as he has repeatedly vowed. Then he suggested yet another way he could get the cash: toll booths.

“And you know, Mexico is paying for the wall,” he said at a rally in North Carolina on Tuesday. “Just so you understand, they don’t say that. They never say it. But we’re gonna charge a small fee at the border. You know, the toll booths.”

“We’re putting a small toll on and maybe we’re going to do something with remittance,” Trump added. “All the money that we spent on the wall will be coming back.”

Remittances refer to a tax or fee on payments sent overseas, such as when immigrants working in the United States send money home to family in Mexico, an idea Trump has floated in the past without much success.


Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-border-wall-tolls_n_5f585017c5b62874bc15abfb

[SeattleVet]

1. Toll booths!

[Solly Mack]

2. I'd say he's lost his mind but, well...

[mwooldri]

3. While toll booths sound bizarre, there already exists a border entry fee.

Most people aren't aware of it as they enter or leave the USA by commercial transport (planes) or by private vehicle less than 30 feet long (crossing to Canada or Mexico). However there does exist a border crossing fee, that can be paid for on a per use basis or annually (and have a transponder in the vehicle for this purpose). Until recently, I had to pay a per-trip re entry fee as a commercial truck and get reimbursed by my employer (I'm a long distance truck driver). Our trucks now have a transponder so I don't pay this fee myself directly anymore.

Therefore it wouldn't be a huge stretch to change the border crossing program to include all private vehicles coming inbound from Mexico (or anywhere for that matter). It would need a little bit of legislation to make it happen. It still doesn't make "Mexico" pay for the wall, but non-US citizens crossing the southern US border in a private car of any length can be made to pay a border crossing fee - and as most non-US citizens crossing the southern US land border typically would be Mexican thus DJT could theoretically make a claim that Mexico is paying for the wall it would be individual Mexicans, not the Mexican government.

So yes sounds bizarre coming from DJT's mouth but it is easily done and the infrastructure is already there.

[sdfernando]

18. sure he could change it to include all vehicles...

that would be mostly U.S. citizens paying.

[safeinOhio]

4. Taxes on remittances?

I might suggest all of you investors go long on Bitcoins and other digital currencies. I can these increase along with ladders ang shovels.

[AZ8theist]

5. Maybe like this:

[Judi Lynn]

6. Possibly the finest film ever made! Yay. Thank you.

[underpants]

7. 😆

[AZ8theist]

9. That's a shitload of dimes!!!!!!!!!

[bronxiteforever]

11. Lol! That made my day.

[Jimbo S]

16. Walking across the bridge in Niagra Falls

I had to put a quarter in the turnstile to get in the U.S. from Canada.

[think4yourself]

8. I had to reread the second sentence

I thought it said “he’s coked up, so a new plan.”

[durablend]

10. His deplorable idiot supporters will eat it up

Even if he came right out and said "I'm taking the money from all of you!", they'll just come back with "YEAH! TAKE THAT LIBS!!! PWNING YOU NOW!!!!"

[duforsure]

12. I suspect the new con will please some

But when it's exposed he's getting kickbacks using his Campaign PAC'S to funnel it into his pockets they will be ready to turn on him. That was likely behind his wanting the wall, just another money making scheme, nothing more.

[Hotler]

13. Employee pay toilets at all U.S. Customs and Border protecion offices. nt

[Bayard]

14. I think someone....Kushner? Miller?

Puts this crap in his head just to see if he'll actually say it. They're probably never disappointed.

How many quarters will it take to make up for the billions spent on his wall? This is also a tax on Americans traveling back and forth. There we go!--trump wants to raise your taxes!

[TomVilmer]

15. A 6$ a fee could pay the wall in ten years

- IF Trumps estimate of "only" $11 billion for the wall is correct
- with approximately 350 million legal crossings taking place annually
- and only people traveling away from Mexico should pay...

But, if more logically only Mexicans should pay, it will take a bit longer.
And then, when Mexico starts only charging US citizens...

[olddad65]

17. Trumps plan to get Mexico to pay for the wall....

Simple, just keep making life in the US unbearable. Then when enough of us illegally migrate across the border, Mexico will pay for the wall to keep us out. And then Trump’s campaign promise will come true, and we can all live unhappily ever after.