Suppose the 60ft high concrete panel Wall is to cost $25 billion. Add $20 billion to condemn a mile buffer back from the border to the wall giving a cleared surveillance zone.

The US imports $300+ billion annually from Mexico.

Trump to Mexico: Pay me $60 billion now and Mexico gets a three year hiatus on the new 35% import tax.

Mexico: Whew, here is the check.

Off topic for hackers?

Only if "hackers" aren't part of society and won't be affected by monumental changes to the leadership of that society.

So yeah, "off topic for hackers" I guess.

Trump's supporters can only wish that the US president achieves the level of approval that Putin gets from Russians.

The LA freeway system never completed its original rational design. As a result a vehicle must take a round-about path to get from one place to another.

Musk's tunnel would be a direct express route between popular endpoints.

I will miss Elon Musk when he becomes the president of Mars.

I hope he meets Benny there who has 4 or 5 kids. And two jobs.

Would be great for Republicans if this boom persists through the 2018 midterm elections.

When Trump's trade policies take hold there should be a rush to form manufacturing startups to make stuff in the USA for the industrial supply chain, e.g. power cords, circuit boards, paints, etc. I expect these to form in the traditional centers of manufacturing excellence - urban areas where minorities will enjoy relative job prospect improvements.

There are lots of articles about how the stock market is affected by elections, but few about how the stock market affects elections. The up market didn't make Al Gore win, for example, but maybe if it were down he wouldn't have pulled it so close. Who knows? Maybe people were feeling so high from the market that they wanted the low-taxes guy because they were feeling rich.

Can the US really make power cords cheaper than China or Vietnam? If they add tariffs to imports I'm sure they can but is manufacturing for the domestic market alone enough to create sustainable jobs?

Nope, unless it's all automated and paired with high tariffs. But then you might only create tens of jobs per factory instead of thousands.

They can't, it's a political statement. It will likely not happen but for a small range of high-value products.

Obviously it does.

Bernie Sanders and big labor applaud.

This hypothesis is falsifiable.

Let's see what happens to US manufacturing when protectionist trade policies take hold.

Awesome record for history.

Go for it!