President Trump on Thursday repeated his claim that Mexico will pay for his border wall — and Democrats gleefully welcomed the news, saying that if that were the case, the US wouldn’t have to.
“Well, Mr. President, if you say Mexico is going to pay for the wall through NAFTA, which it certainly won’t, then I guess we don’t have to. Let’s fund the government,” Sen. Chuck Schumer cracked Thursday on the Senate floor.
Trump had tweeted that the revised version of NAFTA, which he calls the USMCA, would generate so much cash for the US that the $25 billion wall would be paid for in full.
“Honestly, if the president really believed what he tweeted this morning that his new NAFTA would pay for the wall, he wouldn’t be threatening to shut down the government unless American taxpayers fund his wall. You can’t have it both ways,” Schumer continued.
“The president’s position on the wall is totally contradictory, ill-informed, and frankly irresponsible. It’s not a serious proposal, it’s a throwaway idea the president used in the campaign and still uses to fire up his base. A Trump temper tantrum and shutdown threat isn’t going to change any minds here in Congress.”
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also looked askance at the president’s claim.
“The money the businesses make? What money is he talking about that’s going to go pay for the wall? It just doesn’t measure up,” she told reporters Thursday.
Pelosi said “the American people are still paying the price” if new revenue from Trump’s trade deal went to the wall.
Earlier Thursday, Trump, as part of his latest tweetstorm — he also went after his former lawyer Michael Cohen and ex-national security adviser Mike Flynn for cooperating with the feds’ Russia probe — repeated his claim that Mexico would pay for the wall, but with a twist.
“I often stated, ‘One way or the other, Mexico is going to pay for the Wall.’ This has never changed,” the president said in a tweet.
“Our new deal with Mexico (and Canada), the USMCA, is so much better than the old, very costly & anti-USA NAFTA deal, that just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!”
Trump on Tuesday told Pelosi and Schumer in a contentious Oval Office sitdown that he would be “proud” to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn’t give him the $5 billion he wants for the wall.
Democrats have offered no more than $1.6 billion for his project.
Mexico has repeatedly rejected Trump’s demand that it pay for the wall.
On Thursday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he did not discuss the wall when he spoke with Trump on Wednesday to talk about the issue of migration.
“We have not discussed that issue, in any conversation … It was a respectful and friendly conversation,” Lopez Obrador told Reuters.