Former President Donald Trump has launched a media offensive over President Joe Biden’s handling of the migrant surge at the border with Mexico.
According to the Washington Examiner, Trump sees an opening to damage Biden on the issue.
Bryan Lanza, a Republican strategist and former Trump 2016 campaign official, described Biden’s border security record as a "target-rich environment for criticism."
"The Biden administration screwed things up, and they still don’t have a plan to fix it," he said. "Trump is telling truth to power."
And Republican strategist Jim Dornan added: "Trump's emergence the last week or so on the border issue makes a lot of sense for a number of reasons. One, it was his signature issue in 2016, and throughout his presidency, so it's an easy one for him to comment on. Two, Biden is completely mishandling the situation in so many ways, it's easy to beat him up on it. And three, it allows Trump to keep his name out there while he decides what to do in 2024."
Trump, in an interview on Newsmax TV on Monday blasted the administration’s efforts.
"They're destroying our country, and we just can't let these things to continue to happen — whether it's the border or energy independence," Trump told Monday's "Greg Kelly Reports."
He also blasted Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and called him "grossly incompetent."
Trump took aim at Mayorkas’ remarks on several interview shows where he blamed the Trump administration for what he called dismantling facilities to handle immigrants trying to cross the border illegally.
"I watched him and I think he’s got to be grossly incompetent," Trump said. "For him to say that because we had the border in perfect shape. I made deals. I wasn’t giving any money to the ‘triangle’ (El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala), the three countries not including Mexico. And with Mexico I was saying we’re going to tariff you allow this to happen. And we had it really stopped."
Trump said the United States used to provide El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala $500 million in foreign aid for years, but threats to revoke the assistance convinced the Central American countries to cooperate to slow the migrants.
And, in an interview with Fox News on Monday, he accused the Biden administration’s policies on the border of leading to death and tragedy.
"We're bringing the violence to our country, because many of the people coming in are not non-violent people," Trump said. "They are violent people ... these countries don't send out their finest and in some cases, I'm sure you have wonderful, fine people, but you also have criminals, you have murderers, you have sex traffickers, you have a lot of very bad people coming into our country, and they are doing nothing about it."
Meanwhile, the White House is placing the blame on Trump for making asylum more difficult, the Examiner noted.
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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