Trump’s Campaign Manager Says His Position on Border Wall ‘Never Changed’
"He will build that wall," Trump's campaign manager said.
— -- Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said the Republican presidential candidate would deliver on his campaign promise to get Mexico to pay for a border wall and that his position has “never changed.”
“He will build that wall, and he has been consistent on that since day one of his candidacy; he will have Mexico pay for it,” Conway said on ABC’s “This Week.” “His position has never changed, on this side of the border or that side of the border.”
Following Trump’s meeting on Wednesday with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the GOP nominee said in a press conference “We didn’t discuss who pays for the wall,” explaining that this conversation would come at a later date.
But in a fiery speech on immigration that night in Arizona, the candidate doubled down on his campaign promise, telling supporters, "Mexico will pay for the wall, 100 percent. They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for it.”
The Mexican president took to Twitter to emphasize that he told Trump his country would not pay for a wall along the southern border of the United States. “I repeat what I told you personally, Mr. Trump: Mexico will never pay for a wall,” he wrote in Spanish.
Conway acknowledged that Trump and Mexico’s president “disagreed” about some of what was said at their meeting. But she said the Trump campaign was “very happy” to accept Pena Nieto’s invitation to the candidate.
“We were very happy to accept the gracious invitation of the Mexican president to have Mr. Trump there, to talk about not just illegal immigration, which of course is a vexing issue for both sides, but also drugs across the border, human trafficking and the sovereignty of each nation that is protected once you have a border in place,” Conway said.
Pressed by ABC's Martha Raddatz about what would happen under a Trump presidency to all undocumented immigrants, not just those who are criminals, Conway said, "Once you enforce the law, once you get rid of the criminals, once you triple the number of [immigration] agents, once you secure the southern border, once you turn off the jobs magnet, jobs and benefit magnet, then we'll see where we are .... We don't know who will be left."
The campaign manager highlighted Trump’s 10-point plan on immigration, which he unveiled in his speech in Arizona.
“The plan ... talks about the E-Verify program. It talks about stopping this jobs-and-benefits magnet. It also talks about securing the southern border, building that wall and having Mexico pay for it,” Conway said.
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