Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump argued that companies that have severed ties with him “bailed because they want to be politically correct” on Tuesday’s “On the Record” on the Fox News Channel.
Trump said of the companies that have cut ties with him, “why are they coming at me? Because I’m against illegal immigration, because I speak up for the country. I’m against illegal — if you look at it, what’s very simple, illegal immigration, I’m totally opposed to it. You see what happened in San Francisco with that beautiful young woman who was shot standing with her father by a man that shouldn’t have been here. We threw him out five times and Mexico sends him back in. In my opinion, the Mexican government forced him back in. They force many criminals back into our country and that’s what I’ve been talking about and frankly people have given me great credit for talking about it. I brought a subject to light. But because I’m against illegal immigration, these people bailed because they want to be politically correct. Yeah, I think they’ll be back.”
Trump also responded to a Washington Post story about the workers at one of his hotels in Washington, DC, some of whom came to the country illegally and were now legal, along with others who “quietly acknowledged that they remain in the country illegally.” While the Trump Organization said, “Our contractors are required to have prospective employees produce documentation that establishes identity and employment eligibility in compliance with immigration law.” And the lead contractor “requires all contractors performing work at the project to follow all applicable federal, state and local laws.”
He stated, “Well, I think it’s wonderful if they came here and they’re legal. but, I know the company that I hired, which is highly respected, one of the biggest in the world, to build it, and we put very big, strong pressure on them. They watched to make sure they’re legal. And if you read the article carefully, they don’t have anybody illegal, they have people that ultimately they were illegal, and they became legal, according to the article. I just read the article 10 minutes ago. And it seems to me that everything is very good because they were legal. I didn’t notice where anybody illegal was working in the building.”
Trump later added, in response to a question about him “getting heat from every single direction,” “I’m bringing to fore, and getting a lot of credit for it, lots of different elements that are very important. We have incompetent leadership. We have leaders that don’t know anything about negotiating. We’re getting killed by China. We’re getting killed by Mexico. We’re getting killed by Japan, and killed by Saudi Arabia, makes a billion dollars a day, Greta. and if they have a problem, we go and defend Saudi Arabia. We get nothing. We are a bunch of very, very foolishly led people. So, what — I think I’m doing very well. I will tell you I’m getting a lot of credit on the other hand. you know, the way you asked that negative question, I’m getting a lot of credit, on the other hand, from people that say I’m the only one that’s speaking the truth. And I think that’s why I’m so high in the polls.” Host Greta Van Susteren added after this remark that she did get a lot of positive emails about Trump.
Trump also stated, “you have to understand something, a lot of people are saying, and you see it too, they say Trump is the only one that speaks the truth. I’m the one that brought up illegal immigration, this wasn’t even a subject, and I brought it up. And I brought it up before the young lady was killed, and then that became a big story. But you have thousands of instances where illegal immigrants that come through our porous border are killing our citizens, and lots of other problems they’re bringing with them. And I mean the jails are loaded up, the hospitals are loaded up with people. And it’s a horrible situation, nobody ever brought it up. And then I watch some of the political pundits, and they hate when I bring this up and I sort of say how could they be — aren’t we all on the same side? Look, I have a very, very simple life. I have a wonderful company. I have a great, great family, all this stuff. But I want to make America great again, that’s more important to me than my company. That’s a very important thing, to make America great again. We will never be great if we keep going like this. We will never be great again as a country. And I have tremendous support. And I think you see that, Greta, in the polls. people are shocked.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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