President Trump is one step closer to fulfilling his biggest campaign promise.
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Following a week of executive orders from the newly inaugurated president, several outlets have reported that Trump has signed an executive order for construction to begin on the 2,000-mile wall that will physically divide the United States and Mexico’s border.
Trump also signed a directive to punish “sanctuary cities” by stripping away their federal funding. He is also set to head executive actions limiting and banning immigration from “several Muslim-majority Middle Eastern and North African countries including Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Libya and Yemen.”
“The American people are no longer going to have to be forced to subsidize this disregard for our laws,” promised White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
Construction could begin in a matter of months.
RELATED: Donald Trump’s wall is going to cost someone a lot of money
In August, Trump accepted an invitation from Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to visit the country while on the campaign trail. Trump and Nieto gave a joint press conference regarding immigration ideas for the U.S.-Mexico border.
There, Trump initially stated that no payment plan was discussed:
Donald Trump: "We did discuss the wall. We didn't discuss payment of the wall." https://t.co/0NEhSdQuNh https://t.co/Vp8W3Y9dpS
— CNN (@CNN) August 31, 2016
Just hours after the press conference, he doubled-down on his promise that Mexico would pay for the wall:
Donald Trump: "Mexico will pay for the wall. 100%. They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for the wall." https://t.co/wwoKDPQdxs
— CNN (@CNN) September 1, 2016
In January, following Trump’s electoral win, it was revealed that the American people would be the ones to foot the hefty price of nearly $12 billion. The Trump camp assured that nothing from the campaign had changed and that Mexico would still pay for the wall.
Former Mexican President Vincente Fox has stated several times that neither he nor his country will “pay for that f*****g wall.”