Trump lashes out after Mexico demands Biden pay $20bn a year: ‘I wouldn’t give him 10 cents!’
Donald Trump has hit out at President Joe Biden saying he ‘lacks respect’ from his Mexican counterpart over the migrant crisis.
The former President has suggested Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s plan to ask for money simply to speak with Biden is a sign of Biden’s weakness.
President Obrador has reportedly demanded $10 billion to talk with President Biden, with Trump suggesting it reflects Biden’s perceived weakness.
It comes after President Obrador suggested that the Mexican government would work to support the US efforts to curb the surge of illegal migrants, but only if certain conditions were met.
Trump told Fox News: “[President Obrador] said he wants $10 billion essentially just to talk, $10 billion to talk. That wouldn’t happen with me, with the wall.
“It’s very simple: lack of respect for the president. They would never say that to me. They would never say before we even talk.
“They want $10 billion a year, Mexico just asked for $10 billion a year. They would never ask it. I wouldn’t give them 10 cents.”
Obrador has expressed demands for President Biden to lift sanctions on Cuba and Venezuela government and the granting, amnesty and providing of legal status to “millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the US.”
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In March, Mexican President Obrador criticised a Texas law that would empower state law enforcement authorities to arrest people suspected of illegally crossing the US Mexico border, saying Mexico will not accept anyone deported by Texas.
He called the law “draconian, dehumanising and unfair” and would prompt a diplomatic response from Mexico.
He said: “Let me say this once and for all, we will not accept deportations from the Texan government.
“We oppose this draconian law, it is completely contrary to human rights, completely dehumanizing, anti-Christian, unjust, it violates the norms of human coexistence (and) not only international law, but even violates the Bible.”
Arrests of migrants for illegally crossing the US Mexico border have dropped so far this year after a record high in December.
The biggest decline was among Venezuelans, whose arrests plummeted to 3,184 in February and 4,422 in January from 49,717 in December.
House Speaker Mike Johnson recently said that the US could force Mexico to comply with American immigration policy.
President Obrador however disagreed, telling CBS News: “We are not a colony. We are not a protectorate of any foreign country.
“And we have a very good relationship with the government of the United States — but not one of subordination.”