Donald Trump said he would force the people of Mexico to build his vowed border wall to keep immigrants out of the United States, warning that if his order was not fulfilled, he would do something “severe.”
When asked how he might force the country to build this wall, Trump said in an interview that aired on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, “you force them because we give them a fortune. Mexico makes a fortune because of us. A wall is a tiny little peanut compared to that. I would do something very severe unless they contributed or gave us the money to build the wall.”
The 2016 presidential candidate added: “I’d build it. I’d build it very nicely. I’m very good at building things.”
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Trump also doubled — or more like quadrupled — down on his controversial remarks about Mexican immigrants, saying they aren’t just “bad,” but that they’re “really bad.”
“You have people coming in, and I’m not just saying Mexicans, I’m talking about people that are from all over that are killers and rapists and they’re coming into this country,” he said.
Trump prefaced by saying that he likes — no, loves — Mexico and its people, as he has for the past several days. “But you have people coming through the border that are from all over. And they’re bad. They’re really bad,” he said.
CNN host Jake Tapper said the Mexican government found those comments to be “prejudicial and absurd” — that Trump is “painting [Mexicans] with a very broad brush as rapists and criminals,” as Tapper described. Trump responded by saying that it’s not necessarily Mexicans, “they’re coming from all over,” he said.
Trump’s incendiary remarks — first delivered during his GOP presidential campaign announcement, and repeated in the days following, caused behemoth Spanish-language TV network Univision to drop its partnership with the Miss Universe Organization, which Trump co-owns the rights to. Trump said he plans to sue the company for breaking what he’s called an “iron-clad” 5-year $13.5 million contract with him. NBC Universal (which is also msnbc.com’s parent company), also owns rights to the Miss Universe show. Related: Donald Trump lashes out at Univision in strongly-worded letter Trump has seen a recent surge in polls, currently landing a second place spot just behind Republican Jeb Bush. The latest Suffolk poll in New Hampshire showed Trump with 11% support; Bush led with 14%. Then, a Fox News poll echoed the lineup. “Support for Trump more than doubled since his announcement and that catapults him into the top tier at 11%,” the Fox analysis read. Asked by Tapper whether his run is just about promoting his brand, as many have criticized, Trump said, “I’m giving up hundreds of millions of dollars to do this. I’m giving up a prime-time television show … I’m in it to win it.”
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