When John Kelly Sounded Less 'Desperate' About the Wall

President Trump cited a conversation he had with Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly when he emphatically stated Tuesday that the United States will build a wall along its border with Mexico “soon."

"Secretary Kelly, formerly General Kelly, is doing an incredible job. And I was just with him a little while ago, and he said, 'We definitely, desperately need the wall,'" Trump told reporters at the White House.

Kelly, whose department has jurisdiction over border security, is one of the president's top advisors on the wall because of his past experience running the Southern Command. Far from making a wall sound urgent, he told a Senate committee in January that a "physical barrier" was only a partial solution to securing the border with Mexico, as THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported:

The person expected to help spearhead the [wall] effort is retired Marine general John Kelly, Trump's pick to head the Department of Homeland Security. Kelly was reportedly eyed by the president-elect for his knowledge of Central and South America from his time as chief of the United States Southern Command between November 2012 and January 2016.

He takes a holistic view of border security—much like the Fence Act itself does. "A physical barrier in and of itself—certainly as a military person that understands defense and defenses—a physical barrier in and of itself will not do the job," he told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. "It has to be, really, a layered defense.