In this fact-checking video, CNN’s Jake Tapper reviews President Donald Trump’s repeated claim that construction has begun on his promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump has been making this claim since he signed the signed the bipartisan $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill on March 23. As we wrote, the bill included $1.6 billion for border fencing, well short of the $25 billion Trump sought for wall construction. Most of the $1.6 billion will be used to replace existing fencing that is dilapidated or inadequate.
By our count, the bill would fund construction of 40 miles of new barrier where there wasn’t any before. None of the new barriers are the kind of solid, concrete wall Trump once described during the 2016 presidential campaign. The spending bill also specifically prohibits construction of the wall prototypes that Trump commissioned and later visited in mid-March.
Tapper’s latest video — which is based on our story “Has the Border Wall Begun?” — is part of a collaboration with CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper.” Past videos can be found on FactCheck.org.
The post Video: Has Trump’s Wall Construction Begun? appeared first on FactCheck.org.
