The question was about Donald Trump’s new plan to pay for a border wall by freezing remittances to Mexico from people in the US, but the President took the opportunity to blast both of the leading GOP contenders:
I’ve been clear earlier that I’m getting questions constantly from foreign leaders about some of the wackier suggestions that are being made. I do have to emphasize that it’s not just Mr. Trump’
s proposals. You’re hearing concerns about Mr. Cruz’s proposals, which, in some ways, are just as draconian when it comes to immigration, for example. The implications with respect to ending remittances, many of which are from legal immigrants and from individuals sending money back home to their families, are enormous. First of all, they’re impractical. We just talked about the difficulties of trying to enforce huge outflows of capital. The notion we’re going to track every Western Union bit of money that’s being sent to Mexico, good luck with that. Then we’ve got the issue of the implications for the Mexican economy, which in turn, if it’s collapsing, sends more immigrants north because they can’t find jobs back in Mexico. But this is one more example of something that is not thought through, and is primarily put forward for political consumption. And as I try to emphasize throughout, we’ve got serious problems here. We’ve got big issues around the world. People expect the president of the United States and the elected officials to treat these problems seriously and put forward policies that have been examined, analyzed, are effective, where unintended consequences are taken into account, and not half-baked notions out of the White House. We can’t afford that.
The President rarely makes an appearance in the Brady Briefing Room, and when he does, usually doesn’t take