Then, faced with the reality that Mexico was not going to pay for the wall and there was no real way to force Mexico to pay for the wall, Trump mostly stopped making the claim. In a tweet, Trump claimed not only that Mexico would pay for the wall but that, in essence, it already was. I often stated, “One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.” This has never changed. The most likely candidate is that Trump is referring to the trade deficit between the United States and Mexico. Assuming the wall costs $18 billion, dropping the trade deficit to $45.6 billion would, under this framework, pay for the wall’s cost.

Source: Washington Post December 13, 2018 15:22 UTC