WORLD NEWS DECEMBER 13, 2018 / 8:54 AM / UPDATED 24 MINUTES AGO

Trump says trade deal pays for border wall, Democrats scoff

Doina Chiacu, Anthony Esposito
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic leaders rebuked President Donald Trump on Thursday for saying Mexico will pay for a border wall through a new trade deal, while Mexico’s new president said the topic has not come up in his talks with Trump.

The Republican president vowed during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign to build a wall along the border with Mexico to slow the flow of illegal immigration, and he has long pledged that Mexico - not U.S. taxpayers - would fund it.

In a Twitter post early on Thursday, Trump said that unspecified savings for the United States as a result of the renegotiated trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada would pay for the wall.

“Just by the money we save, MEXICO IS PAYING FOR THE WALL!,” he wrote.

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One of them, House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, ridiculed Trump’s assertion on Thursday.

“What money? What money? ‘That money will be used to pay for the wall?’ The money that businesses make? What money is he talking about that’s going to go pay for the wall? It just doesn’t measure up,” Pelosi told reporters at the U.S. Capitol.

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