People around the world expect the president of the United States and elected officials to treat economic problems seriously, and not "half-baked notions coming out of the White House," President Barack Obama said on Tuesday in response to GOP front-runner Donald Trump's threat to cut off the money immigrants send home to Mexico.
"I am getting questions constantly from foreign leaders about some of the wackier suggestions that are being made," Obama said Tuesday in an address and press conference. "I do have to emphasize that it's not just Mr. Trump's proposals. You are also hearing concerns about [Ted] Cruz's proposals, which in some ways are just as draconian when it comes to immigration, for example."
And the implications, in respect of ending money from legal immigrants and others sending money to their families are "enormous," the president said.
"First of all, they are impractical," Obama said. "The notion that we are going to track every Western Union bit of money that's being sent to Mexico, you know, good luck with that."
And then there are implications for the Mexican economy, because if it is collapsing, even more immigrants will head north because they won't be able to find jobs in Mexico, said Obama.
"This is just one more example of something that is not thought through and is primarily put forward for political consumption," said Obama. "As I have tried to emphasize throughout, we have got serious problems here. We have got big issues around the world. People expect the president of the United States and the elected officials in this country to treat these problems seriously, to put forward policies that have been examined, analyzed, are effective, where unintended consequences are taken into account. They don't expect half-baked notions coming out of the White House."
On Tuesday, Trump outlined his plan in a
two-page memo to
The Washington Post describing how he wants to force Mexico to pay for his 1,000-mile border wall by cutting off the flow of billions of dollars to the nation.
However, Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa noted, the plan's feasibility is both legally and politically unclear and could test the powers of a president's influence in pressuring a key ally like Mexico.
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