White House Backs Off Trump's Call For Import Tax To Pay For Wall
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami) - President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May at the White House on Friday.
The visit comes just a day after the President of Mexico scrapped plans to visit the Trump next week amid a growing dispute over plans to build a wall along the U-S Mexico border.
President Trump has vowed to keep his signature campaign promises including plans to restrict immigration from Muslim countries.
"Some people have come in with evil intentions I guess, most haven't, but we can't take chances," said Trump during an interview with Fox News in which he also talked about building a wall on the southern border. "Look the wall is necessary. That's not just politics and yet it is good for the heart of the nation in a certain way because people want protection. And a wall protects."
On Thursday, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto expressed outrage at Trump's insistence that Mexico would help pay for the wall.
Hours later White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, suggested the U.S. might impose a heavy tax on Mexican imports to raise the money.
"By doing it that way we can do ten billion dollars a year and easily pay for the wall just through that mechanism alone," he said.
While the White House later backtracked, saying the tax was just one idea on the table, members of the president's own party spoke out.
South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham tweeted-- "...any policy proposal which drives up costs of Corona, tequila, or margaritas is a big-time bad idea. Mucho sad."
British Prime Minister May's meeting with Trump comes a day after she addressed GOP lawmakers at their policy retreat in Philadelphia.
"An America that is strong and prosperous at home is a nation that can lead abroad but you cannot and should not do so alone," May told the gathering.
Trump's meeting with May will be his first a foreign leader since becoming president.
