Reuters/Carlo Allegri
A man with a costume poses for a photo after a U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump campaign event at an airplane hanger in Rochester, New York April 10, 2016.
President Donald Trump, facing questions about his commitment toward funding the construction of a wall along the US-Mexico border, vowed Tuesday that the wall would be built and suggested it would come in his first term in office."The wall's going to get built, folks," Trump told reporters during an executive order signing at the White House. "In case anybody has any questions, the wall is going to get built."
Trump said the wall would stop the "flow of drugs" coming over the border, "stop a lot of people from coming in that shouldn't be here."
The White House had pushed to include funding for the border wall into a spending bill that will have to be passed by Friday to prevent a partial shutdown of the federal government. After pushback from lawmakers, Trump's administration seems to have softened on that stance.
Trump did say that the wall would be built "soon."
"We're already preparing, we're doing plans, we're doing specifications," Trump said. "We're doing a lot of work on the wall and the wall gets built."
Asked if the border wall would be built by the end of his first term, Trump replied, "Yeah, yeah sure, we have plenty of time, got a lot of time."
Watch Trump's remarks below:
.@kasie Trump: "The wall's gonna get built folks"
- Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 25, 2017
Q: When?
Trump: "Soon"
Q: 1st term?
Trump: [hesitates] "Yea. Yea. Sure…We have plenty of time" pic.twitter.com/0td4KOLczy