Kelly: Mexico won’t pay for border wall ‘directly from their government’
White House chief of staff John Kelly said in a Wednesday interview that Mexico would not pay for President Trump’s proposed border wall “directly,” but through new fees and trade talks.
“We have some ideas on how things like visa fees, renegotiation on NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement], on what that would mean to our economy,” Kelly said on Fox News’s “Special Report with Bret Baier.” “In one way or another, it’s possible that we could get the revenue from Mexico, but not directly from their government.”
Kelly also told Baier that Trump “has evolved” what he wants from the wall after meeting with border security experts.
{mosads}“There are places where geographically, a wall would not be realistic. There are other parts of the southwest border that are so wild and untamed that there is no traffic that goes through them,” he said. “There [are] other places we think about 800 miles [of] additional wall to include the 600 that’s already in place … would suffice.”
“He has evolved in the way he’s looked at things,” Kelly continued. “Campaign to governing are two different things, and this president has been very, very flexible in terms of what’s within the realm of the possible.”
Kelly’s remarks come after The Washington Post reported earlier Wednesday that in a meeting with Democratic lawmakers, the chief of staff said there will be no wall on the border “that Mexico will pay for.”
Kelly was also asked by one lawmaker, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), to explain Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Certain things are said during the campaign that are uninformed,” Kelly replied, according to the Post. He reportedly told the group that “a concrete wall from sea to shining sea” wouldn’t be built, but would instead be a “physical barrier in many places.”
Trump blasted a bipartisan Senate immigration proposal in an interview Wednesday, calling it “horrible” on border security and “very, very weak” on reform to the legal immigration system.
“It’s the opposite of what I campaigned for,” Trump said.
Trump campaigned hard on building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and has repeatedly vowed to make the Mexican government pay for it.
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