Trump Threatens to Close Southern Border if He Doesn’t Get His Wall
RANSOM NOTE
Reuters / Jonathan Ernst
Donald Trump has threatened to close the southern border with Mexico “entirely” if Democrats don’t give in and give him funding for his wall. The president appeared to be infuriated by Senate Democrats’ refusal to back a spending bill that includes money for his border-wall project, leading to the government shutdown. Tweeting Friday morning, Trump wrote: “We will be forced to close the Southern Border entirely if the Obstructionist Democrats do not give us the money to finish the Wall & also change the ridiculous immigration laws that our Country is saddled with. Hard to believe there was a Congress & President who would approve!” The president went on to say that he would consider closing the border to be a “profit making operation” because the “United States looses soooo much money on Trade with Mexico under NAFTA.” Trump recently signed a replacement for the NAFTA trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, and said the new deal would be “fantastic for all!”
Further in his early-morning tweetstorm, Trump went on to point to reports that a new “migrant caravan” was forming in Honduras, and repeated his threat that he would shut down all aid to the region: “They are doing nothing about it. We will be cutting off all aid to these 3 countries [Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador]—taking advantage of U.S. for years!”