House speaker Paul Ryan says 'we're going to pay' for Mexico wall initially

House speaker Paul Ryan has commented the US will pay for the wall on its southern border, on which construction is set to begin in a matter of months.

US President Donald Trump today (25 January) signed executive orders to build the Mexico border wall and said Mexico would eventually pay for construction.

Ryan stated US taxpayers would initially have to pay for its construction, stating in an interview with MSNBC: "First off, we're going to pay for it and front the money.

He added: "There are a lot of different ways of getting Mexico to contribute to doing this. There are different ways of defining how exactly they pay for it."

"The point is, [Trump] has a promise that he made to the American people to secure our border. A wall is a big part of that. We agree with that goal."

"We will be working with him to finance the construction of the physical barrier, including the wall, on the southern border."

Ryan's comments came following a similar assertion by Trump that Mexico would eventually pay the US back for the construction.

"We've been talking about this right from the beginning," Trump said in comments carried by the BBC.

"All it is, is we'll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we make from Mexico," he added.

"I'm just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form. What I'm doing is good for the United States. It's also going to be good for Mexico. We want to have a very stable, very solid Mexico."

Trump added: "I just signed two executive orders that will save thousand of lives, millions of jobs and billions and billions of dollars. These two orders are part of an immigration reform we outlined during the campaign. I want to emphasise that we will be working in partnership with our friends in Mexico to improve safety and economic opportunity on both sides of the border.

Trump said he looked forward to another meeting with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, stating: "We will discuss close coordination on many, many important issues between our countries."