--- title: Donald Trump Changes Mexico Border Wall Campaign Pledge description: Donald Trump tweeted that he will ask Mexico to pay the U.S. back "later" for the cost of the Mexico border wall, rather than pay up front. canonical: https://time.com/4625651/donald-trump-mexico-wall-congress/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-06T12:28:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T07:12:42.543Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Just Changed a Key Campaign Promise About Mexico og:description: He says he'll make Mexico pay for the wall... later og:url: https://time.com/4625651/donald-trump-mexico-wall-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b4ba7134345657e/6988b43e97cdff1c956af003/ap_17002484257260.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5472 og:image:height: 3078 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Just Changed a Key Campaign Promise About Mexico twitter:description: He says he'll make Mexico pay for the wall... later twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b4ba7134345657e/6988b43e97cdff1c956af003/ap_17002484257260.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Just Changed a Key Campaign Promise About Mexico > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=fe4327a8-efd5-4454-986e-43b1ccf4bb5d&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump [Watch (HLS stream): TIME 2016 Person of the Year: Donald Trump](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q0tBuF3M.m3u8) (4:12)  _Published 2016-12-07. The 2016 Person of the Year is Donald Trump, the President of the divided states of America._  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 6, 2017 12:28 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 6, 2017 12:28 PM UTC Throughout [Donald Trump](http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2016-donald-trump/)‘s presidential campaign, he would lead his crowds in call-and-response chants about [his signature plan for a wall](http://time.com/4212181/felipe-calderon-trump-wall-stupid/) [on the southern border](http://time.com/4281926/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-explanation/?iid=sr-link1) of the United States. “Who’s going to pay for it?” he would yell. “Mexico!” his supporters would cheer back. But now he’s added a major caveat to that plan. “The dishonest media does not report that any money spent on building the Great Wall (for sake of speed), will be paid back by Mexico later!” the President-elect [tweeted](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817329823374831617) early Friday morning. The key word in Trump’s tweet that marks the change in policy is “later.” His response came after [CNN published a story](http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/05/politics/border-wall-house-republicans-donald-trump-taxpayers/index.html) reporting that Trump will ask Congress to fund the wall through the appropriations process, not Mexico. (The report notes that in October, Trump suggested for the first time that Mexico could reimburse the United States for the cost of the wall rather than pay for its construction up front.) Now it appears that Trump is going with the reimbursement plan and asking taxpayers for the money first to move things along more quickly, possibly because Mexican leaders have been adamant that they [won’t actually pay for it](http://time.com/4237744/vicente-fox-donald-trump-wall-mexico/?iid=sr-link2). ## Transcript MUSIC ] Every year we choose the Person of the Year who is the individual who has had the most influence on events for better or worse. The Tod argue that anyone had no influence that Donald Trump over the events of this year. [ MUSIC ] I didn't get Beyonce and Jay Z and Goose Bernstein to get crowds, I had just me. And ideas that people wanted to hear. But there is a profound argument about whether his influence was for the better or for the worse. And that really is the challenge that faces the country came through this election season more divided conspicuously publicly than at any time through any election cycle that most of us Can remember. [ MUSIC ] We're gonna have a lot of jobs put back. I think we're gonna have a lot of fuel companies leaving our country. I believed we will be successful with defeating ISIS or bringing them down to a level where it's almost the same thing. And I hope I'm judged from the time of the election as opposed to from January 20th because the stock market has had a tremendous bounce and people are seeing very good things for business in this country. [ MUSIC ] One of the things that was remarkable in going to see him, to interview him, is to be in that Penthouse which is the most austiontacious, imaginable marble and mirrors, and gold. And see him in the suit and the diamond cuff links. There is a kind of distance that repressed him about, of how is it that the billionaire is the tribune of the working man? He said, he thought that it had to do With that he wasn't a phony, that there have certainly been wealthy politicians before. Doing some cases would bend over backwards to make themselves appear like the common man, or do anything that they could, eating the corn dog at the Iowa State Fair, wearing a flannel shirt in New Hampshire. I think he had a very strong instinct that his wealth and that flamboyant display of his wealth Was not a liability that it was actually an asset. [ MUSIC ] Donal Trump is very comfortable sitting down and answering questions, although he very frequently does not remotely answer the question that you asked. In one sense it feels very undisciplined and in another sense maybe it's very disciplined in that He knows what he will and will not talk about and is unabashed in completely changing the subject. Do you feel changed by your election, and how you do think, if I play this tape back in four or eight years, the office will have changed here? Well, it's a It's a very humbling experience, I can tell you, as somebody that loves this country, it's a very large country, but it's also an even more powerful country than the numbers, because, if you look at China, and India, and you have others with more people, but, when you look at what we do in this country, it's The most incredible place on earth. [ MUSIC ] A lot of people think that Person of the Year just because the nature of the name is an honor. And certainly there have been years where we have recognized people's whose influence has been altogether, unassailably worthy. Normally, that's not the case. I know there are a lot of people who disagree with so much of what Donald Trump said and are very apprehensive about what his presidency means for them and for the country. I think I would challenge them to suggest that someone else this year had more influence than a way greater Surprise than what he did in 2016. 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