Ignoring the fact that there are fewer people trying to enter the US illegally than any time in the past 20 years, President trump keeps insisting he will build the greatest Wall ever to stop illegal immigration.
Enrique Peña Nieto
The beleaguered President of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto (Institutional Revolutionary Party) whose popularity rating is even lower than the 40% approval rating enjoyed by President Trump in his first weeks in office (the worst in US history), has, despite President Trump’s claim that it was a mutual decision, bluntly refused to come to Washington to meet with President Trump because he won’t stop demanding that Mexico pay for the wall.
To be clear, Mexico has no complaint about the US building a border wall on US property, the proud peoples of Mexico just see no earthly reason why they should be asked to pay for the wall President Trump wants.
Cost
Despite more than a year of saying that it will be the greatest wall ever and that Mexico will pay for it, President Trump has now asked Congress to appropriate the funds necessary to build the wall, saying eventually (on what is popularly known as on the never-nevers) Mexico will pay for it.
Actually there are some suggestions that if the Drug Lord “El Chapo” Guzman who was recently extradited from Mexico to the US can be successfully prosecuted and his monies seized, he may pay for the wall through confiscation.
But again that is all speculative and Congressmen, even most Republicans, are not happy with the idea of adding another $12 billion (Speaker of the House Paul Ryan’s estimate) or much more (US Government projects always run late and over budget) to the deficit.
Although Speaker Ryan said the Republican Congress would provide funding for Trump’s Great Wall, he declined to tell viewers of C-SPAN (public TV covering politics) that it wouldn’t end up being paid for by US taxpayers or simply add to the already massive deficit.
Executive order
On Wednesday President Trump signed an executive order (EOs were widely criticised by Trump and most Republicans when President Obama used them) to “build a physical wall” on the Mexican border with the US.
Wall Street experts say many construction companies have been looking forward to this event with great anticipation since Trump's great wall it would be the largest single government construction project using concrete since President Eisenhower (impressed by Hitler's Autobahns) directed the coast to coast construction of 4-lane interstate highways.
Conservative estimates of the proposed wall based on hints (President Trump gave no details) say the great wall would require perhaps 4 times more concrete than the Hoover Dam's 4,360,000 cubic yards.
Asked how many new schools that could build, White House spokesperson declined to answer this reporter's question.
Great for business
Wall Street estimates that since the election, market capitalization of US construction-related companies have gained $2 billion in stock value on the basis of estimates for the Trump wall costing upwards of $25 billion.
U.S. Concrete in Dallas, Texas, a ready mix concrete supplier is only 400 miles from the Mexico border. The CEO has said they are ready to supply the needs of the Trump wall.
Wall reality
The US/Mexico border is 2,000 miles long, the second longest unfortified border in the world - the longest is the US Canada border of 5,000 miles, of which about 2,000 are the border between Alaska and Canada.
About 650 miles of the US/Mexico border are already secured with strong fences and walls, leaving nearly 1,500 miles for the new wall, some of which, in the Big Bend region of southern Texas is nearly impassible because of vertical cliffs and therefore almost impossible to build a continuous wall on.
Earlier today President Trump called for a 20% tariff on Mexican goods which one Congressman said was a non-starter since it would increase the cost of Tequila and Corona (beer brand) according to a tweet by Republican Senator Lindsay Graham.
