President Donald Trump attacked a front-page media account that said he 'backed down' on closing the southern border – a day after he said he was giving Mexico a 'one-year warning' to stem illegal immigration.
Trump took to Twitter Friday to push back on a Washington Post account of his border decision – after he revealed he would not close the border as he had said he might do if Mexico didn't clamp down on illegal immigration immediately.
The paper reported that Trump had 'backed down' after business leaders and some White House aides warned of potentially devastating consequences if he carried out his threat.
'The Crazed and Dishonest Washington Post again purposely got it wrong. Mexico, for the first time in decades, is meaningfully apprehending illegals at THEIR Southern Border, before the long march up to the U.S.' Trump tweeted.
'This is great and the way it should be. The big flow will stop,' he added.
President Donald Trump is not 'ready to close' the border after all. He said he's giving Mexico a year stop illegal immigration - or he'll come back to the topic
Trump fired off the message shortly before heading off on a trip to California to visit a section of border wall.
A day earlier, he revealed he is 'not 'ready to close' the border after all.
Trump told reporters that he's inclined to tariff cars coming over from Mexico first, and then close the border. He said the neighboring country should consider this a warning.
'We’re going to give them a one-year warning and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, particularly cars. The whole ballgame is cars,' he said. 'And if that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.'
It was a steep climb down from his repeated threats to close it the border as soon as this week. America's top CEOs warned him in a Wednesday letter that even threatening to do it hurts companies and their workers and he should rethink his decision.
He signaled Thursday that their complaints had an impact, and he would not shut down the border, as planned.
'Frankly better but less drastic than closing the border is to tariff the cars coming in,' he told reporters. 'And I will do it. You know I will do it — I don’t play games. I will do it.'
CEOs from America's leading companies told the Trump administration Wednesday that a border shutdown 'would severely damage the operations of American businesses and hurt American workers' and the president should not count it as an option.
The heads of GM, JP Morgan Chase, Oracle, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Cisco, IBM, Marriott, AT&T, Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Comcast and dozens of American businesses sent the administration a letter via the Business Roundtable outlining the economic risks of Trump proposed port of entry closure.
'Closing the border would back up thousands of trucks, impact billions of dollars of goods each day, cripple supply chains and stall U.S. manufacturing and business activity,' they said in a letter to the president's economic advisers and members of his Cabinet.
Trump said last week that he could close it all down within days if illegal immigration does not come to an immediate halt.
'I'm ready to close it, if I have to close it,' he insisted as he spoke to reporters on Tuesday.
After he threatened a border closure again on Wednesday, fellow billionaires signaled they'd had enough.
Administration officials were working behind the scenes, in the meantime, to limit disruptions to the economy and local businesses, in case Trump acted on his threat during a Friday visit to Calexico, California, to see newly-constructed areas of his border wall.
Trump gave Mexico a lifeline on Thursday afternoon, pledging to hold off on a border closure while the work to reduce the number of immigrants illegally crossing the border and illicit drug sales.
'Mexico has been capturing people and bringing them back to their countries at their southern border. They keep people under their very powerful laws they have the right to do it and bringing them back to where they came from,' he said. 'That’s been about three days now, I guess, frankly since they thought I was going to close the border.'
Economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Wednesday morning that the administration was looking at keeping freight lanes open if Trump shuts down the rest of the border
Trump warned Congress again on Wednesday that he'll shutdown the border without immediate action
In this photo taken on April 2, 2019 cars line up to cross to San Diego, US from Tijuana, Mexico at San Ysidro crossing port in Baja California state, Mexico
National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said Wednesday morning that the administration was looking at keeping freight lanes open if Trump shuts down the rest of the border.
'We're very integrated with the Mexican economy,' he acknowledged at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. 'We certainly looking at it, we're certainly exploring it. We will do the best that we can in the event that that becomes necessary.'
White House Director of Strategic Communication Mercedes Schlapp punted to the president's Council of Economic Advisers as she was cornered
