President Trump on Friday attacked The Washington Post as he departed the White House for the U.S.-Mexico border, calling the newspaper “deranged” in its coverage of his remarks and policies concerning immigration and the border.
In a series of tweets, the president asserted that his pressure aimed at Mexico’s government was forcing Mexican authorities to do more to stop the flow of migrants headed toward the U.S. border. The president promised to increase pressure and close the border if Mexico didn’t continue to stem the tide of migrants coming to the U.S.
{mosads}”The Crazed and Dishonest Washington Post again purposely got it wrong. Mexico, for the first time in decades, is meaningfully apprehending illegals at THEIR Southern Border, before the long march up to the U.S.,” Trump claimed.
“However, if for any reason Mexico stops apprehending and bringing the illegals back to where they came from, the U.S. will be forced to Tariff at 25% all cars made in Mexico and shipped over the Border to us,” he continued. “If that doesn’t work, which it will, I will close the Border.”
His tweets followed a Washington Post analysis that referred to his claims of Mexico starting work to counter the flow of northern-bound migrants as “nonsense,” stating that Mexican authorities have in fact been attempting to stop migrants heading north since 2011.
“The claim that Mexico only this week started to detain thousands of Central Americans at its southern border is nonsense. Mexican immigration officials had 886,640 encounters with Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans from 2011 through February,” wrote the Post’s Salvador Rizzo, citing data from the Mexican government.
“Trump says Mexico began to detain thousands of Central American migrants at its southern border only this week. Let’s not beat around the bush here — that’s totally false. They’ve been doing it for decades,” Rizzo continued in the article.
Trump has battled lawmakers for weeks over his plan to declare an emergency at the border in order to reallocate funding to the construction of a border wall, a signature campaign promise of his 2016 run for office.
Democrats have refused to provide funding for a wall, contending that other forms of border security are more effective and less disruptive to landowners.