If Donald Trump is able to fortify the Mexico-United States border, as he has promised to do, it will be the greatest accomplishment in presidential history.
America’s southern border stretches close to 2,000 miles with half of that being the Rio Grande and Colorado River. Donald Trump announced his candidacy with a bang stating he planned to erect a massive wall along that 2,000-mile stretch:
"I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me — and I'll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."
The idea of building a wall this great is so unprecedented that the closest thing we have to compare it to is the 670 miles of fence that the Bush administration provided with the Secure Fence Act of 2006. That fence alone cost 2.4 billion dollars and did not even come close to covering half of the border. So how can he convince congress to throw taxpayer money at this project? He is going to need Mexico to cash up some serious dinero.
There is just one small problem with banking on Mexico to pay for their fair share of the wall, they are refusing. Enrique Peña Nieto, Prime Minister of Mexico, stated the following after his brief introductory meeting with Trump: “I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.” To be quite frank, who blames Mexico for not wanting anything to do with securing the border? According to The United States Department of Homeland Security, there are over 11.4 million illegal immigrants from Mexico residing in the United States. Mexico wants no part of helping America relocate those people back into Mexico. They simply do not have the resources to effectively deal with a migration of that size. So expect the next year to be filled with back and forth attacks from Trump and the Mexican government. With Mexico not a viable option, the only logical conclusion is Trump is going to have to sweet talk the government into forking over the money he needs.
Trump brings unique qualifications to the presidential office that will benefit him tremendously with the wall. He is the first president to ever hold vast experience in construction and real estate, which makes him the most equipped to refortify the southern border. He estimates the cost of building the wall to cost between 12-24 billion dollars, depending on height and length (It just got another 10 feet high). If anyone could build such a massive structure with such scrutiny behind it, it would be the Donald. His Trump Tower, estimated to cost 2.1 billion dollars, was built for the cost of 847 million dollars. Trump knows how to build efficiently and cost effectively.
Even with all of history and the numbers going against him, I would never bet against Trump. His victory on Tuesday, November 8 was after political correspondents deemed his victory impossible. Government officials, border patrol, and builders everywhere are deeming this wall impossible. Well in the words of Nelson Mandela, “It always seems impossible until it's done.”
