Trump reassures crowd: Mexico will pay for border wall
Campaigning in Ohio, Trump says "We're going to build the wall, Mexico is going to pay for the wall." https://t.co/AUPSfvtIlZ
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 1, 2016
Donald Trump is seeking to reassure his supporters that Mexico will pay for his proposed border wall a day after that nation’s leader disagreed.
{mosads}The GOP presidential nominee was speaking about protecting American jobs and border security at a rally in Wilmington, Ohio, on Thursday when the crowd erupted into a chant of “build that wall!”
Trump paused and smiled before saying, “Don’t worry, we’re going to build that wall. It’s going to go up.”
“We’re going to build a wall,” he continued to applause. “Mexico’s going to pay for the wall. We’re going to stop the drugs from coming in.”
Trump visited Mexico on Wednesday, meeting privately with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto before holding a joint press conference with the leader.
Trump said during the event that the two did not discuss who would pay for the wall, calling it a “preliminary” meeting. But Peña Nieto contradicted Trump later, saying he told him Mexico would not pay.
“At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall,” Peña Nieto wrote.
“From there, the conversation addressed other subjects and developed in a respectful manner.”
The border wall has been the signature issue of Trump’s presidential campaign.
Trump did not discuss illegal immigration or deportation at his Ohio rally. But he highlighted his high-profile immigration address in Phoenix the night before, saying he “outlined a bold new immigration reform to create prosperity and opportunity for all of our people especially those who have the least.”
“We will treat everyone with dignity respect and compassion, but our greatest compassion will be for the American citizen,” Trump said Thursday. “It will be from now on America first.”
Trump’s address in Phoenix laid out a hard-line immigration plan that shut down any thoughts that he would soften on the issue. He warned that no one illegally in the country would be exempt from deportation.
“Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise, we don’t have a country,” Trump said Wednesday night.
Updated at 12:56 p.m.
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