Trump doesn't ‘want to wait' on building the wall his Homeland Security pick says won't 'do the job'

Daily Kos Staff

Wednesday January 11, 2017 · 9:51 AM PST

2017/01/11 · 09:51

BEDMINSTER TOWNSHIP, NJ - NOVEMBER 20: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump points at U.S. Marine Corps General John Kelly before their meeting at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) — Trump, back in November, before retired Marine General John Kelly said his wall was a sham.

Asked a multiple-part question by a reporter Wednesday that touched on Nazi Germany, intelligence officials, a Supreme Court nomination, and "the border fence," Donald Trump opted to speak on his precious wall first.

"It's not a fence, it's a wall. You just misreported it," he said, a bit miffed at the slight. Trump then explained why he's going to make taxpayers foot the bill for his wall.

“I could wait about a year and a half until we finish our negotiations with Mexico which will start immediately after we get to office, but I don't want to wait. Mike Pence is leading an effort to get final approvals through various agencies and through Congress for the wall to begin. I don't feel like waiting a year or year and a half. We're going to start building. Mexico in some form, and there are many different forms, will reimburse us and they will reimburse us for the cost of the wall. That will happen.”

That's not going to happen, Mexico's new Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray reiterated on Tuesday.

"There's no way that could happen," Videgaray said on Mexican television a few days after his appointment.

"There are no circumstances...not even the best possible trade deal, investments, support which would justify taking a step that would violate the dignity of Mexicans to such an extent."

In the meantime, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, John Kelly, basically trashed the wall in his confirmation hearings Tuesday. David Cloud writes:

Kelly, a retired four-star general, told his Senate confirmation hearing that cutting the flow of migrants and illegal drugs would require addressing rising violence and lack of opportunity in poverty-stricken countries in Central and South America, not just building a wall.

“A physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job,” Kelly told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. “It has to be really a layered defense.”

As I wrote last week, the wall is Trump's most precious campaign pledge. The only issue on which he was equally consistent throughout the 2016 campaign was his praise of Russia and Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s No. 2, Mike Pence, went to Capitol Hill last week to grease the skids for his No. 1 priority. Nothing would be more devastating to Trump—or the GOP agenda—than killing the wall. Nothing.

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