President Donald Trump restated his promise to make Mexico pay for his big wall on the Southern border, suggesting that they would do it by renegotiating NAFTA.
“They can pay for it indirectly through Nafta,” Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “We make a good deal on Nafta, and, say, I’m going to take a small percentage of that money and it’s going toward the wall. Guess what? Mexico’s paying.”
He insisted that NAFTA was a bad deal for the United States and said that “nothing’s changed” about his campaign promise to renegotiate the deal.
“I can tell you I think the American market would go up if I terminated Nafta and renegotiated a new deal,” Trump said.
He threatened to terminate NAFTA unless they could reach a renegotiation of the trade deal, but said he was waiting until after the presidential elections in Mexico.
“I understand that a lot of things are hard to negotiate prior to an election,” he said. “They have an election coming up fairly shortly. I understand that makes it a little bit difficult for them.”
As the debate over the wall continues, Democrats have mocked Trump for demanding American wall construction funding as part of a DACA deal.
“Mr. President you campaigned on a wall that Mexico would pay for. We’re waiting,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said.