I asked for the largest possible phone and this is what they gave me it's as
big as my face let me take you back to a simpler time
August 5th 2014 to be exact 4:30 4 p.m. Eastern time to be even more exact it
was at that very moment that private citizen Donald Trump tweeted this and
what came to be his signature all cabs style quote secure the border build a
wall at tweet got 1460 we tweets in 1632 likes by Trump II and Twitter standard
it's a pittance the tweet was widely ignored because who cares what some rich
dude who's never going to have his hands on the steering wheel of the US
government thinks we should do to solve our water problem right which brings me
to 2019 Donald Trump is in the White House the government screeched to a halt
over his demands for more than 5 billion dollars for a border wall with Mexico
and congressional Democrats refusal to give it to him
and if there's one thing we saw over the first two years of Trump's presidency is
that those two sides they don't sort things out all that easily but as a
famous philosopher believe it was Donald John Trump once said those who don't
learn from history are doomed to repeat it
so where the hell did all of this wall talk start so when Trump announced for
president way back in June 2015 the border wall was a part of his pitch even
though almost no one took him or the wall seriously here's Trump from that
very speech I will build a great great wall on our southern border and I will
have Mexico pay for that wall in those early days of the race Trump was very
vague about the details of the wall quote you don't eat a wall for the
entire piece because we have wonderful people Border Patrol people that can do
the job he says less than a month after he gave
that first speech and announcing his campaign quote but you do need walls in
certain sections without question now as the campaign wore on and Trump ever the
show man realize that his call for a wall was getting huge applause from
every crowd he spoke to he started talking about the wall
a lot more and in a lot stronger terms by August
2015 Trump was already boasting about how
tough his wall was going to be we're building a wall it's gonna be a wall
that is not nobody's going through my wall Trump builds walls I built walls
we're building a wall it's gonna be strong it's gonna be solid it's gonna be
police you know somebody said they can tunnel under well that's true but with
x-ray equipment they can't all you have to do is fly a drone over it in October
2015 the wall begin to take on superhero-like qualities quote we're
going to build a wall and it's going to be impenetrable it will be a real wall
said Trump early 2016 as it had become clear to anyone paying any attention
that Trump was in fact a serious candidate for the Republican
presidential nomination his wall pitch started to get even more outlandish we
will build the wall and you know who's gonna pay for the wall Mexico they're
gonna pay for it cuz they make a fortune now well Trump never actually committed
to how Mexico would be paying for the wall the crowds at his campaign rallies
quickly picked up on his pledge 100 percent in March 2016 after former
Mexican President Vicente Fox said there was no way in hell Mexico was paying for
the wall troop replied that wall is getting taller with every interview
these exes Mexican president store getting taller taller and we are going
to build a great water wall gonna be a very tall wall very strong wall very
powerful walk it's gonna be such a beautiful wall it's gonna be so big it's
going to be so powerful it's going to be as beautiful as a wall can be I've got
to make it beautiful because maybe someday they'll name the wall the trip
wall who the hell knows then bounce herb won and he won despite the fact that
just four in ten voters said they supported the idea of building a wall
along the entire Mexico border now quick break for this Donald Trump never
thought he was going to win the White House not ever I know that for a fact
from conversations with lots and lots of people who were in close contact with
them during the final days of the campaign fact taken to the bank
FAC T but another fact is that he did win and Trump spent two years trying to
somehow someway make good on his wall promise to his political base despite
the massive political and policy problems that it created despite his
insistence in 2018 that quote the wall is the wall it has never changed or
evolved from the first day I conceived of it he's changed virtually every
aspect of it the cost for the wall fluctuated from four billion dollars to
at 20 billion dollars the height of the wall range from 35 feet to over 50 feet
the length of the wall in whether it will be a wall or a barrier or a fence
or something else changes almost every time Donald Trump tweets and the cherry
on top is Trump's changing story about who will be paying for the wall now
unless you just started this video you know the answer to that question already
right thanks ago actually maybe not I'm gonna start building Mexico in some form
and there are many different forms we'll reimburse us and they will reimburse us
for the cost of the wall when during the campaign I would say Mexico's going to
pay for it obviously I never said this and I never meant
they're gonna write out a check I said they're gonna pay for it they are they
are paying for it with the incredible deal we made calls the United States
Mexico and Canada USMC a deal accepts in April 2016 Trump's campaign released a
memo on his wall policy that included this line quote it's an easy decision
for Mexico make a one-time payment of five to ten billion to ensure that 24
billion continues to flow into their country year after year
Trump has shifted his rhetoric slightly saying Mexico will pay for the wall
through the trade deal that will replace NAFTA but this claim remains
preposterous Congress hasn't ratified that deal and there's no indication that
it would bring in enough new money to the Treasury to offset the cost of the
wall the u.s. taxpayers so look here's how you should understand it the wall is
a stand-in for Trump in his campaign and his presidency an outlandish idea whose
bluff has been called a poker player holding a pair of two's who just pushed
his entire chip stack to the middle of the table and it's got no plan on what
to do next and that is the point we make new point episodes every Tuesday and
Thursday check them all out