Trump says Mexico paid for the wall with tariffs the Supreme Court threw out

Ten years, and he finally found the receipt. Shame it’s in someone else’s name.

Saturday in Highland Heights, Kentucky, Donald Trump settled the question he’s been dodging since 2015. “Mexico did pay for the wall,” he said, just so we’re clear, “because I charged them tariffs.” Many, many times over, apparently.

Small problem: tariffs aren’t paid by Mexico. They’re paid by the American companies importing the goods, who then pass a lot of it on to you. Fact-checkers have been explaining this to him since the first term. Mexico’s leaders always refused to pay, and when NBC tallied it up, US taxpayers had covered roughly $15 billion of wall.

Bigger problem: the big Mexico tariffs he’s bragging about were 25% duties imposed under an emergency law. In February the Supreme Court ruled that the law never let him impose tariffs at all. Customs now has a refund portal open so importers can claim the money back, and Penn-Wharton estimated more than $175 billion could be at stake.

So the wall money came from Americans, through a tax the Supreme Court says he had no power to charge, which the government is now paying back. Mexico paid for it the way the guy who says “I’ll get the next round” pays for drinks.