There’s apparently no limit to how high the cost of President Donald Trump’s border wall with Mexico will climb.

The latest estimate for the barrier — which is actually a series of fences and walls — comes in at $21.6 billion, according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security internal report reviewed by Reuters on Thursday. The report projects that it would take more than three years to complete the project, one of the president’s signature campaign pledges. It also shows that DHS expects Congress — and not Mexico — to foot the bill, with the hope of starting construction in September.

The price tag pegged by DHS is more than five times higher than the figure Trump first floated for his proposed wall and billions of dollars more that what Congressional Republicans publicly claim it will cost. Boasting of his record as builder and a deal maker, the real estate mogul claimed in September 2015 that he could build a wall along the country’s 1,250 mile border with Mexico for just $4 billion.

“Some politicians said Trump will never be able to afford the wall. We can’t afford it. It’s too expensive. It’s peanuts. It’s peanuts. It’s nothing,” Trump said during a speech in Dallas, referring to himself in the third person. “Let’s say the wall cost $4 billion. You know, they say $10 billion. That means $4 billion if you know what you’re doing and the $4 billion will be much bigger, much better, much stronger than the $10 billion. Believe me. Oh, do I know how to build? Greatest. One of the greats.”

Following this low-ball claim, the estimates peddled by Trump and his Republican allies’ have continued to balloon. In November 2015, Trump nearly doubled his initial figure to $7 billion. The price tag jumped to $8 billion in February 2016. A few weeks later, it climbed another 50 percent to $12 billion. Then last month Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pegged the estimate for Trump’s border wall at $15 billion, a figure high enough to make GOP deficit hawks shudder and openly plot a revolt.

Curious how the wall’s newest estimates will sit with the public and a Republican party who were once told by the president that it would cost “peanuts”? So are we.

Related Video