Jacquelyn Martin/AP photo white house Trump claims new trade pact will ensure Mexico pays for border wall 
 
 President Donald Trump has begun to tie his seemingly abandoned campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the construction of a wall on the U.S. border to the newly negotiated trade pact that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. 
 
 In a Thursday tweet, Trump, using dubious logic, declared that he’d made good on his vow by way of coming through on another campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA with the leaders of Canada and Mexico. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 “I often stated, ‘One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.’ This has never changed,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!” 
 
 Following an extraordinary televised meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in which the trio sparred over wall funding, Pelosi told lawmakers that in private, Trump asserted the same claim. 
 
 The Trump administration completed its negotiations on the revised NAFTA, which has been dubbed the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, earlier this fall. The new deal has yet to be ratified by Congress, and the administration faces an uphill climb to getting the support it needs from lawmakers. 
 
 There is no consensus that provisions in the new trade deal would result in Mexico funding a border wall, and former Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray tweeted following the announcement of an initial agreement on the USMCA that Mexico would never pay for the wall, even through the new deal. 
 
 While the administration could try to include funding for the wall in a bill providing for the USMCA's implementation, the chances are slim that it could pass in the divided Congress Trump is set to face. It is also possible that Trump believes increased trade with Mexico will generate more tax revenue that will in turn fund the wall, which has been pegged with a $25 billion price tag. 
 
 Trump’s vows that Mexico would pay for a border wall to curb illegal immigration were a staple of his campaign rallies in 2016, even earning their own call-and-response portion in Trump’s stump speech. Mexican leaders repeatedly pushed back on Trump’s insistence that they would foot the bill, and once Trump took office the talk of Mexico paying fell mostly silent. 
 
 When the crux of getting Trump’s border wall built eventually became whether Congress would provide funding for it in its annual spending bills, appropriators half-appeased the president by providing over $1 billion for border security that was to include fencing along the border but not a full-blown wall. 
 
 But as Trump stares down the prospect of shutting down large portions of the federal government over his demands for more wall funding, he’s engaged in a number of questionable arguments to justify his ask for $5 billion for border security. 
 
 Trump has inflated just how much of his border wall has already been built, appearing to conflate fencing along the border with the “big, beautiful wall” he promised in an attempt to justify additional funding for the project. 
 
 The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on which provisions of the USMCA would pay for the border wall. 
 
 Doug Palmer and Sabrina Rodriguez contributed to this report. ||||| I often stated, “One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.” This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL! ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump and the new leader of Mexico discussed "positive relations" between the two countries in a phone call this week. But Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told reporters that he and Trump have never discussed the contentious topic of the border wall. 
 
 Lopez Obrador's statement Thursday came less than an hour after Trump asserted in a tweet that Mexico was paying for the border wall through the savings the U.S. garnered in the renegotiated free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. 
 
 The two leaders spoke by phone Wednesday about immigration and Lopez Obrador's push for a Marshall Plan-like effort to spur economic development in Central America. 
 
 Lopez Obrador said the conversation was respectful and friendly, but did not discuss the border wall or who would pay for it. 
 
 "We haven't touched that topic in any conversation," Lopez Obrador said. 
 
 The Mexican leader said the possibility of a visit to Washington was raised, but he didn't think it was realistic until there was at least a draft agreement about investment in Central America. 
 
 White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Trump and Lopez Obrador "discussed the need to address illegal migration from Central America to the United States." 
 
 The two countries have been working to find a solution for the caravans of Central American migrants traversing through Mexico in hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S. 
 
 Trump had an uncomfortable relationship with the previous administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump had promised during his 2016 campaign to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and have Mexico pay for it. Pena Nieto refused. ||||| President Trump pledged Thursday to do “whatever it takes to get border security,” deepening an impasse over border wall funding barely a week from a crucial deadline for a partial government shutdown to begin. 
 
 In a video posted on Twitter, Trump attacked Democrats as “absolute hypocrites” and claimed they’ve supported funding border barriers in the past but won’t do so now because of their opposition to him. 
 
 The video showed images of people rushing the border and included clips of Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama speaking in opposition to illegal immigration and in favor of border security. 
 
 “We need to have the wall. We need border security. Whatever it takes to get border security, I will do it,” Trump says in the video. “I pledged that a long time ago, and I will pledge it always.” 
 
 The video had a caption saying “Let’s not do a shutdown, Democrats — do what’s right for the American People!” 
 
 The video came two days after Trump declared during an Oval Office meeting with Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that he would be “proud” to shut down the government to get the wall money he wants. 
 
 Since then, Democrats have attacked him relentlessly on the issue, with Schumer repeatedly accusing the president of throwing a “temper tantrum” as he threatens to lead the government into a partial shutdown in pursuit of what critics say is a costly and unnecessary wall. 
 
 Trump is demanding $5 billion for his border wall for 2019, while Democrats are unwilling to give him more than $1.3 billion for border fencing. Democrats said Thursday that they won’t budge. 
 
 “President Trump is willing to throw a temper tantrum and shut down the government unless he gets his way,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “I want to be crystal clear: There will be no additional appropriations to pay for the border wall. It’s done.” 
 
 Funding for federal agencies including the Homeland Security Department runs out Dec. 21 at midnight, unless Congress passes a spending bill before then and Trump signs it. Other agencies affected include the Justice, Interior and Agriculture departments, totaling 25 percent of government spending that is controlled by Congress. 
 
 Other major agencies, including the Pentagon, have already been funded through September. 
 
 On Capitol Hill, confusion and uncertainty reigns about how the dispute will end. 
 
 Lawmakers headed home for a long weekend Thursday no closer to a solution, leading one key lawmaker to suggest that Congress might have to fall back on passing another short-term spending bill, kicking the can down the road once again because of an inability to compromise. The Homeland Security Department and other agencies are already operating under a two-week short-term spending bill. 
 
 Senate Appropriations Chairman Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) suggested Congress might have to extend funding until Dec. 26 or even Jan. 3 — right before a new Congress is sworn in and Democrats take control of the House. Shelby said other options could include short-term extensions until later in January, February or May, or all the way through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, which is the solution Democrats have proposed. 
 
 “We’re at an impasse,” Shelby said. “Something’s going to happen, or we’re going to have a CR or a shutdown.” A CR is a “continuing resolution” that extends government spending at existing levels. 
 
 However, Democrats said no one had discussed the shorter-term options with them. 
 
 House members are not scheduled to return to the Capitol until Wednesday evening, two days before the shutdown deadline, prompting sniping from some senators. 
 
 “I don’t understand why people don’t come to work and work all the way through December when the taxpayers are paying them,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “I mean, finish your job.” 
 
 Trump also claimed in an earlier tweet Thursday that “money we save” from a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada would make good on his long-standing promise to have Mexico pay for the wall — an assertion backed by no verifiable evidence. 
 
 “I often stated, ‘One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall,’ ” Trump wrote on Twitter. “This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!” 
 
 Mexican officials have said there was no discussion in the trade deal negotiations of mechanisms under which Mexico would pay for the wall. 
 
 Schumer and Pelosi both ridiculed Trump for his claim. 
 
 “It doesn’t make any sense,” Pelosi told reporters at a news conference. “Maybe he doesn’t understand how a trade agreement works. . . . I think the Oval Office is an evidence-free zone.” 
 
 Pelosi, who is likely to become House speaker in January, also pointed out that Congress has yet to ratify Trump’s new trade deal. 
 
 Schumer, meanwhile, suggested on the Senate floor Thursday that if Mexico is truly funding the wall, Congress does not need to spend any money on it. 
 
 Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign promising American voters that Mexico would somehow pay for the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a demand that angered Mexican officials but enthralled his supporters. Since becoming president, though, Trump has sought U.S. taxpayer money to fund the wall’s construction and threatened to shut down parts of the U.S. government if lawmakers do not acquiesce. 
 
 David J. Lynch contributed to this report.
– President Trump on Thursday revived his promise that Mexico would pay for a border wall. But this time, he linked it to the revised NAFTA deal. The morning tweet: "I often stated, 'One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.' This has never changed. Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!" So what does that mean exactly? A former GOP staff director of the Senate Budget Committee tells the Washington Post he's stumped. "Boy, this is a stretch," says William Hoagland. Trump, he says, appears to be arguing that the trade deal will boost the economy so much that new tax revenue will cover the cost of the wall. By that measure, he adds, it could be argued that Canada is also paying for the wall. Politico, too, sees "dubious logic" in Trump's statement, and if Mexico is paying for the wall under the new NAFTA, which still awaits ratification by Congress, it's news to Mexico. Trump and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador spoke this week, and Lopez Obrador says the topic didn't come up, reports the AP. Earlier this week, Trump warned that he would be "proud" to shut down the government if Democrats don't provide $5 billion to fund construction of the wall. (That heated exchange was televised.)