Donald Trump on immigration ‘everything is negotiable’
Republican front-runner Donald Trump said on the Fox News Channel that “everything is negotiable” when it comes to immigration reform.
Trump was responding to a report that The New York Times has an audio tape in its possession calling into question whether Trump would actually go through with the hardline immigration stance he has promoted on the campaign trail. Trump called the Times “the most dishonest media group” and said his conversation “was off the record” and now “all of a sudden they leak it, it’s all over the place.”
Check out the clip at the bottom.
He then hinted he may actually be willing to compromise as president over an immigration deal.
“Everything, by the way — is negotiable,” Trump said to Sean Hannity. “Things are negotiable. I’ll be honest with you. You know, I’ll make the wall two feet shorter or something. I mean, everything is negotiable.”
“It’s not negotiable building it?” Hannity pressed.
“No, building it. Not negotiable,” Trump assured.
“Would it be negotiable about the 11 million? Maybe letting some people stay if the register in a period of time?” Hannity asked, searching for answers on exactly what would be “negotiable.”
“I would say this. Look, I’ve always said, we have some good people over here and they are going to go out, but we will work out some system that is fair,” Trump said. “But you either have a country or you don’t. We need a border — we need a wall.”
“But there’s always going to be some negotiation. I mean, whether the wall is 50 feet tall or 40 feet tall and one of the things, one of the reporters said to me, well, ‘What happens, you know, Vincente Fox made this statement, how do you respond?’ It was an arrogant, terrible, horrible statement. And I said, here’s how I respond: The wall just got 10 feet higher. And I meant it. He was incensed.”
The conversation closed with Hannity asking Trump if he would put his name on the wall.
“Only if it’s beautiful,” Trump said.