WASHINGTON — In an early-morning Twitter post, President Trump insisted on Thursday that he has been unwavering in his stance for building a border wall between Mexico and the United States to thwart illegal immigration.
He was responding to — and directly contradicting — private statements by John F. Kelly, his chief of staff, who told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus on Wednesday that Mr. Trump had not been “fully informed” when he first promised the wall, and that the president’s position on building it had “evolved” over time.
“The Wall is the Wall, it has never changed or evolved from the first day I conceived of it,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter at 6:15 a.m. Thursday.
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But a review of Mr. Trump’s public statements on Twitter, in campaign speeches and during interviews shows that the president’s views on the border wall have shifted repeatedly since he raised the idea nearly four years ago, on Aug. 5, 2014.
The planned wall of 1,000 miles began with a single — and vague — statement.
Mr. Trump’s early statements about the length of the wall were ambiguous. More recent descriptions about the distance it would cover, however, have been fairly consistent.
June 25, 2015
“You don’t need a wall for the entire piece because we have wonderful people, Border Patrol people, that can do the job. But you do need walls in certain sections, without question.” — Interview with CNN
Aug. 25, 2015
Reporter: How are you going to build a 1,900-mile wall?
Trump: Very easy. I’m a builder. That’s easy. I build buildings that are — can I tell you what’s more complicated? What’s more complicated is building a building that’s 95 stories tall. O.K.?
— News conference in Dubuque, Iowa
Oct. 28, 2015
“As far as the wall is concerned, we’re going to build a wall. We’re going to create a border. We’re going to let people in, but they’re going to come in legally. They’re going to come in legally. And it’s something that can be done, and I get questioned about that. They built the Great Wall of China. That’s 13,000 miles. Here, we actually need 1,000 because we have natural barriers. So we need 1,000.” — Republican presidential debate
Dec. 2, 2015
“In our case, we need really 1,000 miles. It’s 2,000 miles, but some is natural borders, natural barriers which are pretty good, not as good as the wall but pretty good; you know what, let’s use it.” — Campaign rally in Manassas, Va.
Aug. 8, 2016
“It’s 2,000 miles, but we need 1,000; you have natural barriers. We need 1,000 miles.” — Campaign rally in Ashburn, Va.
Nov. 2, 2017
“You have 2,000 miles. You have mountains, you have rivers, you have things that you don’t put the wall in, you don’t need them.” — Interview with Fox News
Jan. 11, 2018
Mr. Trump: So the wall. The wall’s never meant to be 2,100 miles long. We have mountains that are far better than a wall. We have violent rivers that nobody goes near. ...
You don’t need a wall where you have a natural barrier that’s far greater than any wall you could build, O.K.?
— Interview with The Wall Street Journal
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Prototypes of the border wall displayed in California in October.CreditJenna Schoenefeld for The New York Times
Mr. Trump’s price tag for the wall has grown from $4 billion to $20 billion.
The president’s estimates for the cost of the wall have varied widely.
Sept. 14, 2015
“So, let’s say it costs $4 or $5 billion. Our trade deficit with Mexico is $53 billion. So $4 or $5 billion is peanuts.” — Speech in Dallas
Oct. 7, 2015
“You mean to tell me I can’t take $7 billion and build a wall?” — Speech in Waterloo, Iowa
Oct. 14, 2015
“If the wall costs $6 billion to build, and you know we’re talking about 1,000 miles, it’s 2,000, but you need it on 1,000. The Great Wall of China, think of it, is 13,000 miles.” — Speech in Richmond, Va.
Feb. 9, 2016
“The wall is probably $8 billion.” — Interview on MSNBC
Feb. 17, 2016
Video
By Msnbc 0:08
'Maybe $10 or $12 Billion'
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