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“I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I build them very inexpensively.”

Donald Trump made many variations of this statement during his campaign. The US President also promised that he would make Mexico pay for the wall. The likelihood of such a wall being built was doubted by many, yet Trump is putting the plan into action.

“A nation without borders is not a nation,” Trump said on Wednesday at the Department of Homeland Security, where he signed the orders alongside the newly sworn-in secretary, John F Kelly. “Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders.”

With this address, according to a New York Times report, Trump “began a sweeping crackdown on illegal immigration” and “ordered the immediate construction of a border wall with Mexico”. The US President will also attempt to bar Syrian refugees from entry into his country.

While the US-Mexico border stretches 3,100 km, Trump has said his wall will be around 1,600 km, with natural obstacles taking care of the rest. The US President estimates the wall will cost $10 billion, while a report by The Washington Post says the cost could be as high as $25 billion.

The White House on Thursday said that Trump was considering a 20 % tax on imports from Mexico to pay for a southern border wall, while weighing other options to make up the cost. Which effectively means Americans will pay for the wall.

In light of these reports, it is worth revisiting Last Week Tonight host John Oliver’s takedown of Trump’s plan (video above), especially because, “the border wall is one of the few policy proposals Trump has talked about in detail, so instead of mocking or dismissing it out of hand, tonight let’s take a serious proposal by a serious presidential candidate seriously.”

Systematically destroying Trump’s plan with a plethora of jokes, Oliver pointed to a Pew Research Study that completely negates the US President’s intent behind building the wall.

“Nearly half of all the unauthorised migrants now living in the United States entered the country legally through a port of entry such as an airport or a border crossing point and then overstaying their visa. And guess what? A wall can’t stop that!” exclaimed Oliver.

The talkshow host had a better plan.

“If the main thing it’s going to get us is a warm sense of satisfaction inside, I suggest instead of building that wall, we use the money to buy every man, woman, and child in America a Palmer Waffle Iron,” said Oliver. “These beauties retail at $75 apiece, so we’d still have nearly $1 billion left over.”

“So come on, America!” he continued. “Let’s ask ourselves what kind of country do we want to wake up to. One that spends billions on an impossible, impractical symbol of fear, or one that smells like breakfast? Exactly!”

Here’s another film, stitched together from 200,000 satellite images, that shows the challenges such a wall will face.

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