President Trump’s wall will cost an estimated $15 billion to complete, but he’s looking for a little “seed money” to get it started. A seed the size of $1.5 billion, that is.

The seed money is being requested, in order to test different systems, walls and fencing.

I still say Governor (now Secretary) Perry had the right idea: strategic fencing, aviation assets, and fast responders on the ground.

While Trump has promised to “make Mexico pay,” there wasn’t an indication that his new budget, set to be released later Thursday, will have a fundraising scheme targeting Mexico. Under consideration is a tax on imports from Mexico, a cut in foreign aid the country and a tax on the tens of billions of dollars Mexicans, here legally and illegally, send home every year.

Translation: Mexico ain’t paying for that wall.

The Great Trump Wall proposal was released just ahead of Trump’s budget plan, which makes cuts to a lot of departments at the state level and reduces foreign aid.

House and Senate homeland security committee leaders have suggested a mixed use system that would include thick walls in heavily trafficked areas, fencing in others and electronic or drone surveillance in territories that are hard to reach.

According to a newly released Public Policy Polling survey, “There continues to be strong resistance to the wall with Mexico if American taxpayers end up having to fund it. Just 37 percent of voters support the wall if we pay for it, to 55 percent who are opposed to that. Even more unpopular is the concept floated last week of having the wall paid for by cuts to funding for the Coast Guard, Transportation Security Administration, and Federal Emergency Management Agency- just 16 percent of voters support making reductions in those places to build the wall, with 69 percent against.”

Take that with a grain of salt, actually.

Public Policy Polling tends to drift left, so a bit more resistance is to be expected.

Also, the story about cuts to the Coast Guard, now looks to be little more than a rumor.

Still, most of Trump’s supporters only see the cost of a wall as a number and don’t really grasp what the price tag means for us, if Mexico isn’t paying for it.

We may have to wait until there’s actual construction going on before we get the whole truth on that wall.