Could Trump Actually Impose an Import Tariff on Mexico?

President Trump capped off a dizzying first week in office by signing an executive order directing the construction of a border wall with Mexico. And, on Thursday, his administration sought to address the two biggest questions plaguing the project: Who is going to pay for it and how?

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, seemed to suggest—at least temporarily—that the United States would impose a 20 percent tariff on all imports from Mexico to generate revenue for the wall. Or perhaps he didn’t—his wording was unclear, and many people thought he was describing what’s known as a , and not a tariff at all. After , Spicer walked the plan back an hour later, offering that a tariff was only one possibility. “It could be a multitude of things. Right? It could be, instead of 20 percent it could be 18 it could be 5,” Spicer . “We could go in another direction, we could talk about tariffs, we could talk about, you know, other, custom-user fees, or a hundred other things.”