--- 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: 2026-02-23T02:35:04.411Z 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Donald Trump Just Changed a Key Campaign Promise About Mexico  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jan 6, 2017 12:28 PM UTC  President-elect Donald Trump listens to a question as he speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Dec. 28, 2016. President-elect Donald Trump listens to a question as he speaks to reporters at Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Fla., on Dec. 28, 2016.Evan Vucci—AP  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). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4625651/donald-trump-mexico-wall-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4625651/donald-trump-mexico-wall-congress/"},"headline":"Donald Trump Just Changed a Key Campaign Promise About Mexico","datePublished":"2017-01-06T12:28:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T02:35:04.411Z","description":"He says he'll make Mexico pay for the wall... later","url":"https://time.com/4625651/donald-trump-mexico-wall-congress/","keywords":["Donald Trump","Mexico","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b4ba7134345657e/6988b43e97cdff1c956af003/ap_17002484257260.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3b4ba7134345657e/6988b43e97cdff1c956af003/ap_17002484257260.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/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4625651/donald-trump-mexico-wall-congress/","name":"Donald Trump Just Changed a Key Campaign Promise About Mexico"}}]}] ```