Wow.
That just takes political double-speak to a whole new level.
No, I never thought Mexico was gonna cut a cheque for the wall. Or pay for it at all except in Trump's imagination. But "Mexico is gonna pay for the wall" now means "American taxpayers are gonna pay for the wall" and no amount of circular gobbledygook is gonna make that anything except bullshit. Or justify closing down a big chunk of the economy.
Wow, that was a pretty ridiculous thing to say.
1)
Aid$14 000 000 000 in aid to Mexico every year
2)
Total Governmental Expenditures on Illegal Aliens Federal Cost of illegal immigrants - $45,870,474,332
State and Local Costs of Illegal Immigrants - $88,992,981,032
Total National costs of illegal immigrants - $132,863,455,365
Federal Tax received from Illegal immigrants - $15,447,897,700
Local and state Taxes received from illegal immigrants - $3,520,960,000
Total national taxes received from illegal immigrants - $18,968,857,700
Total cost of illegal immigration - $132,863,455,365 - $18,968,857,700 = $113, 894, 597, 665
3)
Money sent home to MexicoOver $23 000 000 000
4)
DRUGSThe NDIC estimates that the annual cost of drug-related crime in the United States is more than $61 billion with criminal justice system cost making up $56 billion of that cost.
Crack cocaine and methamphetamine are the drugs that most often contribute to the commission of crimes in the U.S., according to the National Drug Threat Survey. Heroin use is a significant factor in the commission of property crimes.
From 63 percent to 83 percent of all arrestees test positive for illicit substances at the time of their arrest, according to the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring Program (ADAM II), which monitors arrestees in 10 cities across the U.S. Twelve percent to 50 percent of arrestees test positive for more than one drug in their system when arrested.
*Note 1 and 2 are all illegal immigrants and not just Mexicans AND 4 is indicative of the kind of cost wrought from easily transported drugs from Mexico walked across open borders*
So in short there is a shitload of expenses that Mexico is costing the US.
If the wall costs $5 billion and Trump is able to reduce either the actual present day costs in these line items by $5 billion or more then Mexico has paid for the wall and reimbursed the cost of the government to front the initial costs and likewise if the wall halts or reduces future escalation of costs projected from not having a wall, by at least $5 billion, the same applies.
Mexico pays for it.