According to a new book, President Trump suggested shooting migrants in the legs to slow them down once they cross the southern border.
The president reportedly suggested in March during a meeting where he also called for the entire border with Mexico to be closed. The New York Times printed an excerpt of the book, called “Border Wars: Inside Trump’s Assault on Immigration,” earlier today.
The Times reporters say this happened during a week when the president was growing increasingly frustrated. The president, intent on keeping campaign promises of building a wall and stopping illegal immigration, was fed up with no results and throwing out a range of ideas.
According to the Times reporters, in a March meeting, the president’s advisers tried to turn him away from such a drastic move. He allegedly said, “You are making me look like an idiot!” and shouted “I ran on this. It’s my issue.”
Michael Shear and Julie Hirschfeld Davis are the reporters and authors of the book. The article also details the president’s other suggestions to stem migration.
Last November, Mr. Trump said, “They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. We’re going to consider it, and I told them consider it a rifle.” And while he said he didn’t mean to shoot migrants if they threw rocks at border patrol agents, the New York Times reports that the president later suggested “they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down.”
The White House responded to the report stating in part, “President Trump has clearly and publicly stated many times that he wants to make American communities safer by building a wall, closing dangerous loopholes that incentive child smugglers and drug cartels, and implement a merit based immigration system.”
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