Mexico won't dare go to war over the border wall Donald Trump intends to build if elected president — because it would be no match for a strengthened U.S. military under a Trump administration, the GOP front-runner declares.
In an interview with journalist Bob Woodward on
MSNBC Wednesday, Trump says there's "five ways" he'll get Mexico to pay for the $10 billion wall he intends to construct as president to staunch the flow of illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.
Asked by Woodward if Trump would be "willing to go to war to make sure we get the money to pay for this wall." Trump replied:
"Trust me, Bob, when I rejuvenate our military, Mexico's not going to be playing with us with war, that I can tell you," he said. "Mexico isn't playing with us with war."
"Believe me, I have all the cards," he added. "You can hold me to it."
Trump mentioned one way he'd squeeze money out of Mexico — by withholding current subsidies, but he didn't specify how much that would be.
This week, Mexican President
Peña Nieto slammed the brash billionaire in two separate interviews, criticizing his "strident expressions" and warning that fiery rhetoric has led to "very fateful scenes in the history of humanity."
"That's the way Mussolini arrived and the way Hitler arrived," Peña Nieto tells El Universal,
the BBC reports.