Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has consistently promoted a xenophobic immigration policy throughout his campaign, making him one of the most controversial US politicians in recent memory. Although many races, religions and nationalities have been on the receiving end of Trump’s confrontational style of politics, Muslims and Mexicans have been particularly targeted.
In the last 12 months, Trump has declared that Mexico has brought ‘rapists’, ‘criminals’, ‘killers’ and ‘drug dealers’ to the United States, suggested a blanket ban on all Muslims entering the country, promoted what he calls an ‘aggressive vetting’ policy and promised to deport millions of illegal immigrants from the US mainland.
Perhaps his most controversial and well-publicised campaign promises however has been to build a wall stretching across the entire US border with Mexico, promising to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into the country. Not only has he promised to build this mammoth wall, but he’s even suggested that he would force Mexico to pay for its construction. Despite repeating this claim numerous times, both the current and past presidents of Mexico have categorically stated that the government would under no circumstances pay for a wall along the border, leaving Trump to suggest a series of policies aimed at damaging the Mexican economy.
When it comes to cost, Trump said it would cost no more than $8 billion to build, an estimate that he recently updated to $10-12 billion. But just how accurate are these cost estimates? I recently came across this phenomenal infographic from Real Money, where they analyse the data behind Trump’s claim, and look at how much the wall would really cost, and how Trump might be able to pay for it: