Donald Trump stalls on promise to build a wall, have Mexico pay for it

President Donald Trump remains committed to building a border wall with Mexico, but he hasn't been able to get the money to do it. And Mexico doesn't seem poised to pay for it, either.

The federal government is in a partial shutdown because Trump says he won't sign any spending bill that doesn't include $5.7 billion to build the wall. Democrats in Congress are unwilling to vote for a bill providing that money.

Even though Trump is demanding billions for the wall from U.S. taxpayers, he's also contending that the wall will be paid for through a renegotiated trade deal that hasn't yet cleared U.S. Congress. It also needs final legislative approval from Mexico and Canada, the two other countries party to the agreement.

Trade experts have pushed back against Trump's false claims that the renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (renamed by Trump as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) will pay for the wall. Trump claims that the United States will see added revenue from the potential deal. But even if U.S. tax revenue increases in response to increased revenues of U.S. firms, Congress would still need to allocate that money for the wall. Trump so far has failed to secure that wall money from Congress.

The Trump administration earlier received about $1.6 billion from Congress for border barriers. But that money wasn't used to build any new wall. Conditions for the money said it could only be for designs previously used, such as fencing.

As the government is in a partial shutdown over Trump's demand for money for the border wall, he's said that the wall doesn't have to be concrete, that it could be a barrier of steel slats. But he's also said that a concrete option remains. Several factors remain unknown: whether Trump and Congress will agree on funding for a border wall, how much that funding would be, and what kind of wall would be built.

As matters stand, Mexico has not paid for a wall. Congress has not appropriated money for a wall. Fencing is being built or has been completed at the southwest border. But not a wall.

Trump's promise to build a border wall and have Mexico pay for it has not been fulfilled, and the government is in shutdown as the fight continues. We rate this as Stalled.