--- title: Donald Trump: I Want to Get the Wall With Mexico Started description: Donald Trump said at a press conference on Wednesday that he wants to "get the wall started" on the border of Mexico and the U.S. canonical: https://time.com/4631631/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-press-conference/ author: Sarah Begley article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-11T17:33:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:15.248Z article:section: Politics og:title: Donald Trump Says He Wants to Get the Border Wall With Mexico Started og:description: And that Mexico will reimburse the U.S. for the cost of the wall og:url: https://time.com/4631631/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-press-conference/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14699b180a0e203a/6988b51eab6d771fc86ac6f4/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4078 og:image:height: 2294 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Donald Trump Says He Wants to Get the Border Wall With Mexico Started twitter:description: And that Mexico will reimburse the U.S. for the cost of the wall twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14699b180a0e203a/6988b51eab6d771fc86ac6f4/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Says He Wants to Get the Border Wall With Mexico Started > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### 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. by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 11, 2017 5:33 PM UTC  President-elect Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City, on Jan. 11, 2017. President-elect Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City, on Jan. 11, 2017.Evan Vucci—AP by [Sarah Begley](https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Jan 11, 2017 5:33 PM UTC [Donald Trump ](http://time.com/4631597/donald-trump-business-separation/)said at a [press conference](http://time.com/4631551/donald-trump-press-conference-russia-ethics-transcript/) on Wednesday that he wants to “get the wall started” on the border of Mexico and the U.S., and that he believes Mexico “will reimburse us for the cost of the wall.” “We’re going to build a wall. I could wait about a year and a half until we start our negotiations with Mexico,” he said, but “I don’t feel like waiting a year and a half.” “I want to get the wall started. I don’t want wait a year and half to make a deal with Mexico.” Mexican President [Enrique Peña Nieto](http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/30/politics/donald-trump-enrique-pea-nieto-mexico/) said in August that he “made it clear” in a conversation with Trump that Mexico “will not pay for the wall.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4631631/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-press-conference/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4631631/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-press-conference/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Says He Wants to Get the Border Wall With Mexico Started","datePublished":"2017-01-11T17:33:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:15.248Z","description":"And that Mexico will reimburse the U.S. for the cost of the wall","url":"https://time.com/4631631/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-press-conference/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14699b180a0e203a/6988b51eab6d771fc86ac6f4/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt14699b180a0e203a/6988b51eab6d771fc86ac6f4/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump","caption":"Donald Trump","creditText":"Evan Vucci—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4631631/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-press-conference/","name":"Donald Trump Says He Wants to Get the Border Wall With Mexico Started"}}]}] ```