Trump Slammed for His Latest Lie to Supporters About How Mexico Is Really 'Paying for the Wall'

If you've noticed that Mexico has never ponied up for the border wall despite President Trump's insistence that he would force them to do so, you're not alone. This is one deal the President has not yet mastered the art of.

Or has he? The President announced Tuesday that Mexico is going to be paying for the wall, it turns out, just in a roundabout way that they're not talking about: border tollbooths.

Trump made this absurd claim during a rally Tuesday in North Carolina.

Trump's claims about border tollbooths were among the more fantastical ones made during his speech in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

"And you know, Mexico is paying for the wall. Just so you understand, they don't say that. They never say it.

"But we're gonna charge a small fee at the border. You know, the toll booths."

And it wasn't just tollbooths that Trump claimed would pay for the wall.

"We're putting a small toll on and maybe we're going to do something with remittance. All the money that we spent on the wall will be coming back."

"Remittance" refers to taxes or fees levied on money transfers sent to other countries--in this case, presumably, those sent to family members in Mexico by Mexican immigrants living and working in the United States.

Trump has proposed funding the wall with remittance taxes before, and even provided a detailed plan for doing so in 2016, but it was based on fundamental misunderstandings of both the economics and legalities involved.

In the end, the Trump Administration has not been able to make good on the promises it made during the 2016 election pertaining to a border wall. While it has built some 300 miles of wall since 2016--funded by U.S. taxpayers' money reallocated from the defense budget--all but five of those miles are repairs to or replacements of existing border wall.

On Twitter, people lambasted Trump for his absurd claim.

Many pointed out that the mathematical and logistical implications of Trump's claim do not make any sense.

And of course, some couldn't help but laugh.

The tollbooth claim is just the latest in a series of claims Trump has made about how Mexico would pay for the wall, including provisions under a new trade deal and so-called "longer-term reimbursement," neither of which have held up to scrutiny.