Trump: We'll Start Building Wall in 'Months'

The wall is moving forward: President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order authorizing work to begin on his long-promised border wall with Mexico, reports the Washington Post. "We've been talking about this right from the beginning," he said during a stop at the Homeland Security department, per AP. In a separate interview with ABC News, the president said he expected construction to begin in "months." He added that while the US would pay upfront, Mexico would eventually reimburse the nation. "I'm just telling you there will be a payment," he said. "It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form." Trump said negotiations on the payment would begin soon.

As for the wall itself, "as soon as we can, as soon as we can physically do it," he said of the timeline. "I would say in months." Trump actually signed two executive actions related to immigration while at DHS. He also will beef up border security by increasing the number of detention centers and field agents, and he'll penalize US cities—so-called "sanctuary cities"—that fail to comply with immigration laws by withholding federal grant money. Still to come is an order that is expected to curb the number of refugees coming from Muslim-majority nations such as Syria. The details on that one were reportedly still being worked out. (More President Trump stories.)