Trump insists Mexico wall must feature fake painted tunnels to ‘trick bad guys to run into them’

“They hit the wall head on, thinking the tunnel is real? It's over.”

The proposed border wall between Mexico and the US should have a number of fake tunnel entrances painted on it, so that people trying to illegally enter the US will run into the wall in the mistaken belief that the tunnels are real, Donald Trump has said. The US president estimated that upwards of a thousand potential illegal immigrants per week could be knocked unconscious by running at speed into the wall, by simply painting a large black tunnel entrance at equidistant points along the 2,000-mile construction. The border wall was a key promise during Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential election campaign, and he is under pressure to deliver on his promise to supporters that illegal immigration would fall under his presidency. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One, Mr Trump was ebullient in his description of the fake tunnel entrances as a way of stopping illegal crossings. "One of the things with the wall is that if it is a normal wall, these bad guys – and many have said this, if it is a normal wall then they will try to go under or over it," he said. "Now you suddenly paint a fake tunnel entrance on the wall with black paint, they’re going to try to go straight through it.” "As horrible as it sounds, they’re going to run at full speed into the wall in the mistaken belief that there’s a tunnel there. They hit the wall head on and realise the tunnel was fake? It's over." The President added that the idea for the fake tunnel entrances came to him after watching late-night cartoons whilst staying alone in the White House. “It doesn’t even have to be a tunnel,” Trump added to reporters aboard the presidential aircraft. “I saw this one episode where the dog tried to use an anvil to catch the ostrich, and it ended up falling on his own head. We could drop anvils from the top of the border wall.” The White House had originally insisted that Trump's comments were off the record but later released his remarks. Donald Trump vowed during his presidential campaign that Mexico would pay for any additions to the existing border wall, though this has so far been denied by the Mexican government. JOE.co.uk reached out to the White House for comment on who would pay for the paint, but has yet to receive a reply.