Seeing that Trump has won the election, the big question is now: Will he be able to build his "great wall"? And will the mexicans pay for it?

Okay, that is most probably the least of the problems the US and the world has should he turn out to be as loony as his critics make him look like, but still... it was one of his most "out there" promises made during the campaign, and given part of his demographics might actually have BELIEVED him even in that case, it is a promise that he might feel obliged to keep.

Now, given that the US probably does not have the money for funding such a project, and anyway the US taxpayer does not want to pay for it, Trump would want to have the mexicans pay for it (as Trump has promised during the campaign).

Ignoring the fact that if the US couldn't pay the cost, Mexico couldn't anyway, is Trump stupid enough to risk a diplomatic crisis when telling the mexican government the good news?

Given that the rest of south america isn't really that fond of the Gringos (neither are the mexicans... had to tell everyone that I am european before they would start talking english with me), and probably would figure out quickly that if the new President of the Gringos is crazy enough to ask such outrageous things from the mexicans, they would soon have US special forces all over their countries again hunting real and imaginary criminals without asking for permission first, this worsen the relationship to many or all south american countries...

Or will he just not mention it, like, ever again? Because it was just a lie made to gain some publicity and votes? And if somebody asks, stall and defer hoping they will forget it again?

What do you think he is? A liar, or a foreign affair trainwreck?

Really, I am not a fan of his, I think most promises made will ultimately not be achievable, but most of them are not so explicitely looking for trouble with a direct neighbour.

My personal opinion: You most probably will not hear of this borderwall against mexico from Trump, like, ever again. IF he is as much business man as he would like everyone to believe he is, he will know this is a stupid idea best left on the drawing board.

Maybe he WILL do something against illegal immigration from mexico... but IF he builds a wall, it would be on US taxpayers money. Which he probably does not want to do.

The USA could pay the cost easilly. Treasury bonds will probably skyrocket, and the wall should only cost a few tens of billions of $.

Not to mention most of that money will get pumped into the border states (like a mini-tarp).

Not sure why a wall though.... I mean... There's the ocean right to the west and east.

I definately hope Trump SHREDS Ford/Carrier et al with brutal tariffs on manufactured goods from Mexico.

But you're right, I doubt we're going to hear about this again. Maybe he'll fly more drones on the border and be like "Wow guys, technology is great isn't it? We have an informational wall! Just what you guys wanted!"

The USA could pay the cost easilly. Treasury bonds will probably skyrocket, and the wall should only cost a few tens of billions of $.

Not to mention most of that money will get pumped into the border states (like a mini-tarp).

Not sure why a wall though.... I mean... There's the ocean right to the west and east.

I definately hope Trump SHREDS Ford/Carrier et al with brutal tariffs on manufactured goods from Mexico.

But you're right, I doubt we're going to hear about this again. Maybe he'll fly more drones on the border and be like "Wow guys, technology is great isn't it? We have an informational wall! Just what you guys wanted!"

I can easely see him "substituting" the wall for some other measures of tightened border control. IF the US is paying for it, the only reaction they would probably get from mexico might be half-hearted objection in this case...

But some people will be pissed about that... because they have voted for a physical wall, paid by the mexicans (well, uh, at least in part. They voted for that by voting for Trump). I am pretty sure "paid by the mexicans" is the important part to many of these... they want to see the US troll their neighbours big time. I might be wrong here, but given the obvious mad dimensions of the plan laid forth by Trump with this wall, I would go as far to say that whoever believed this would turn into a reality is probably somebody who does not give a sh*t about diplomacy and foreign affairs.

Will that be just a small minority easy to ignore, or will enough people call him out on this broken promise to get a reaction?

I really doubt it, considering that the idea was pretty far fetched to begin with.

"Don't you see little Jimmy? The wall was right there in your heart all along".

My bet is he will shoot mexicans going both ways and end up building a free wall made of corpses, doesn't sound THAT far fetched from him><.

But seriously no clue if he'll do it, i'm sure he's not stupid enough to go with pressing mexico into paying as that made no sense but i can see the wall being built or the idea just droped, neither of which would be shocking in the context of his election. I just doubt he'd go as far as building a really tall really wide wall all over the border, maybe something more realistic like a wall in hard to defend area and layered fences elsewhere with motion detectors or something similar.

But seriously no clue if he'll do it, i'm sure he's not stupid enough to go with pressing mexico into paying as that made no sense but i can see the wall being built or the idea just droped, neither of which would be shocking in the context of his election. I just doubt he'd go as far as building a really tall really wide wall all over the border, maybe something more realistic like a wall in hard to defend area and layered fences elsewhere with motion detectors or something similar.

He can get money without pressing Mexico too hard just by charging a few $ per remittance transaction to Mexico, or placing a tariff on parts manufactured there coming into the USA.

The money isn't the hard part, the hard part's convincing the rest of the country it's needed.

But seriously no clue if he'll do it, i'm sure he's not stupid enough to go with pressing mexico into paying as that made no sense but i can see the wall being built or the idea just droped, neither of which would be shocking in the context of his election. I just doubt he'd go as far as building a really tall really wide wall all over the border, maybe something more realistic like a wall in hard to defend area and layered fences elsewhere with motion detectors or something similar.

He can get money without pressing Mexico too hard just by charging a few $ per remittance transaction to Mexico, or placing a tariff on parts manufactured there coming into the USA.

The money isn't the hard part, the hard part's convincing the rest of the country it's needed.

Mmh, good point. Might actually be MORE effective than building the wall in the first place. If you want to make working in the US less attractive to mexican people, or at least make the state earn something from this practice (which in turn might allow the US government to fund something to ease the "pain" apparently some people are feeling in the US because "the mexicans took our jobs!"), an additional fee on money transfered back to Mexico might be the way to go.

Of course that wouldn't go unnoticed by the mexican government, but now this is something they can do little about other than bitch and moan. While a physical wall on the border... well, not much they can do if its still on US territory, but its still easier to "attack" politically.

I just hope his advisors are intelligent enough to see that the US have WAY more serious problems than mexican immigrants and workers... but that is just, like, my opinion, man!

I think it was clear from the very first moment when he said that for the very first time that he was not being serious about literally building a wall. That was a figure of speech, and everybody knew it was. They'll likely just be much more rigorous on border patrols, and less forgiving on immigration issues. It's the same about throwing out all Mexicans. Everybody (Trump included) knows that the Mexicans are the ones doing all the work that nobody else wants to do, and for little pay, so obviously this isn't going to happen. He will probably be 500% more rigorous on expelling "bad" Mexicans, but he sure will want to keep the "good" ones. They're not taking away anyone's job, they are doing jobs that that must be done and that nobody wants to do. Now of course what will remain to be seen is what exactly will be the criteria to classify as "bad" Mexican, whether you have to be a drug-dealing rapist gang member, or whether it's enough to eat burritos.

That was a figure of speech, and everybody knew it was.

I am pretty sure that is true for MOST US citizens. It might even be true for MANY Trump voters. But seeing SOME of the folks his campaign has brought out of the closet, are we really sure THEY didn't take it literally?