The Cost of Trump's Wall

Range of estimates

Here are some relevant projections, as chronicled by news publication Quartz.

• In July 2016, Bernstein Research, a firm that analyzes material costs, put the price tag at $15 billion to $25 billion, for a wall that stretches 1,000 miles and is 40 feet high, which was Trump’s initial desired height.
  
• In January 2017, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said the wall’s cost would be $12 billion to $15 billion.
  
• In February 2017, a leaked report from the Department of Homeland Security put it much higher, at $21.6 billion.
  
• In April 2017, the Democratic staff report cited the nearly $70 billion cost.
  

"I would 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’ll have Mexico pay for that wall."

Sources: Donald Trump’s presidential announcement speech

Donald Trump on Mexico

• "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best... They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people"
• Mexico is "ripping off the US more than almost any other nation"
• "Mexico continues to make billions on not only our bad trade deals but also relies heavily on the billions of dollars in remittances sent from illegal immigrants in the United States"
• "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words"
• "Under my administration anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came."

If we build it, they will come...legally, believe me!