Donald Trump said on his final day of campaigning that he will dial up Mexico’s new president on his first day in office to inform her he will slap a 25 percent tariff on imports from her country.
Trump referenced new Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo who ‘I suppose is a very, very nice woman, they say.’
‘I haven’t met her, and I’m going to inform her on Day One or sooner, that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25 percent tariff on everything they send into the United States of America,’ he said he would threaten.
The remark earned cheers from his rally crowd in North Carolina.
Trump, who back in 2016 said he would build a wall and that Mexico would pay for it, said the plan had a ‘100 percent chance of working.’
‘They wanted $3 billion to meet,’ Trump said, in a possible reference to the Department of Homeland Security’s request for $3 billion from Congress to combat the migrant surge.
‘They wouldn’t have said that with me. I would have said, okay, you want $3 billion to meet? I’d do the opposite. If you don’t give us $3 billion, I’ll impose the biggest friggin’ tariff …’
Former President Donald Trump rallied supporters in North Carolina and threatened to slap tariffs on Mexico ‘if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country’
Then he threatened to ratchet it up even higher. ‘If that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 50, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 75. Then I’ll make it 100.’
He described the tough language he would use.
‘You stop letting people come in through our border, and come in through your southern border, and you stop it’ – perhaps acknowledging that many of the migrants had also crossed illegally into Mexico.
Then Trump claimed he wanted to wait until Monday, the day before the election, to roll out the idea, saying it was to prevent rival Kamala Harris from stealing it.
He called her a ‘low IQ individual’ and said ‘I don’t want to have her say, you know, I had an idea last night while I was sleeping and turning, tossing, sweating,’ Trump said.
‘If that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 50, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 75,’ he said. ‘Then I’ll make it 100.’
Trump himself helped negotiate a new trade deal with Mexico that replaced NAFTA during his first term with one of Sheinbaum’s predecessors.
Trump kicked off his final day of campaign rallies and predicted victory if his MAGA fans make it to the polls – but revealed his hoarse voice is an issue and again defended the speaking style that he calls ‘the weave.’
‘If we get our vote, there’s nothing they can do,’ he told a crowd in North Carolina.
‘I hate the expression, actually – but it’s ours to lose,’ Trump said.
Trump said he would phone Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo on his first day in office
Speaking for 90 minutes despite the time pressure, Trump riffed on all manner of subjects, then revealed a bit of family advice near the end of his remarks.
‘Ivanka called me a little while ago she sends her love to everybody. She’s teriffic,’ he said of his daughter, who advised his White House but has not been joining him on the campaign trail.
‘And I have a guy who’s home with the first lady. He’s very smart … He’s 18 years old. And he gives me good advice.’ Then Trump did a quick impression of his son, a college freshman. ‘Dad: take it easy, now. You just take it easy dad, alright? You don’t have to go too much here. He gives me good – he’s very wise,’ Trump said.
He has been projecting optimism even while occasionally admitting the possibility of defeat.
‘Hopefully everything will work out well. We’re way leading. All we have to do is close it up,’ Trump said, after polls showed one of the closest races in years.
But as he wraps up his campaign, Trump acknowledged his voice was failing, veered off script to attack Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Michelle Obama, and revealed his desire to ‘get out of here fast’ even as he riffed for 90 minutes.
Trump also noted how sometimes things don’t turn out as expected for Republicans. ‘You’d watch it like a racehorse and sometimes they’d get there and sometimes they wouldn’t,’ Trump allowed. ‘My only purpose in even being here today: get out and vote. You know that,’ he said.
Trump sounded hoarse on Sunday during an extended rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania where he said he shouldn’t have left the White House and spoke about how ‘somebody would have to shoot through the fake news’ to get him.
On Monday, his voice was back, and he was going on and off the teleprompter, threatening to tell Mexico‘s new president he would impose a 25 percent tariff.
Trump hammered Nancy Pelsoi, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, and other rivals
Trump said he ‘loves dogs,’ and spoke about the advice he got from son Barron
At one point he told the crowd he ‘loves dogs,’ in a campaign that has featured more pet commentary than most. Trump notably became the first president in years not to have a pet in the White House.
He made the comment after a high-pitched noise came out from the crowd.
‘I love dogs. We love dogs,’ Trump said, before
Then he swerved to talking about his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. ‘She would come into the office and she loves dogs and pets. And she would get me to do things for doggies that you wouldn’t believe,’ Trump said.
‘Dad we have to make the cages larger. We have to provide air conditioning,’ he said Lara told him.
‘I said do we have to give them a steam bath? ‘
With every minute counting, Trump is endeavoring to stay on schedule – and sharing the time management strategies with his crowd, while claiming rival Kamala Harris sleeps and isn’t working hard.
‘I was going to get out of here fast. I’m doing four of these things today. And the voice is holding up, just about barely,’ he said after making several long digressions.
He defended his speaking style. ‘The press will say, ‘Oh he rambled.’ No, you know what that is? That’s genius. That’s the weave. … That was the ultimate weave.’
But he was watching the clock. ‘I gotta go a little quicker now. I took Marco’s place and I took Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ place … and I’m going to ask them to come up right now,’ he said. He brought up Sen. Rubio and his former press secretary.
He praised their brevity. ‘What they just did was better and appreciated, it brings us a little bit into schedule,’ Trump said.
He took time to put in a plug for former First Lady Melania Trump’s book. ‘She loves you. She says hello,’ Trump said. Then he defended the digression, which he called a weave.
‘And I said first lady. First lady. See, this is a little bit of a weave … First lady book, boom. But you gotta always bring it back. When it comes to a time when it doesn’t meet at the bottom, then it’s time to say: Let’s not do this s*** anymore. We won’d do this anymore. But what happens is, Van Jones was crying,’ he continued, bringing up a favorite story about the CNN commentator.
Trump returned to his refrains about Kamala Harris surrogates who have gone after him.
Among them is popular former first lady Michelle Obama. ‘She took some shots at me. I said, ‘Woah, woah, woah.’
He called Barack Obama ‘the great divider,’ then called him by his full name, ‘Barack Hussein Obama.’
‘He came out the same way for Hillary, how did that work out?’ Trump added.
Then he called former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ‘a disgrace.’ He also blasted her husband for selling stock in Visa two months before the DOJ announced an investigation.
‘They impeached me on no evidence, I did nothing wrong. Fortunately, the Republicans stood up for me 100 percent,’ he said. Trump was acquitted 57-43, short of the necessary two-thirds majority, with seven Republicans voting to convince.
Trump continues to criss-cross battleground states, with his final rally set for Grand Rapids tonight.
