White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Thursday said that President Trump plans to fund the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border by imposing a 20 percent tariff on Mexican imports. And while Spicer reportedly backtracked the claim, telling NBC News' Peter Alexander just one hour after revealing the plan that it was simply an "example of options" of how to pay for the wall, not a concrete policy proposal, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to warn of the dangers of imposing such a tax on Mexico.
"Any tariff we can levy, they can levy," Graham wrote, noting that Mexico is the U.S.'s third-largest trading partner. And then he offered this explanation for why imposing such a high tax on Mexican imports would be "mucho sad":
Convincing.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
August 28 editorial cartoonsCartoons Thursday’s political cartoons include Taylor Swift's wedding bells, Donald Trump's objections to mail-in voting, and thoughts and prayers
-
How Israel's 'Legitimisation Cell' is justifying journalist killings in GazaThe Explainer Evidence suggests a secret intelligence unit is portraying Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives
-
Why the world is going mad about Taylor Swift's weddingThe pop star unveiled diamond ring in cosy snaps with fiancé Travis Kelce earlier this week
-
New York court tosses Trump's $500M fraud fineSpeed Read A divided appeals court threw out a hefty penalty against President Trump for fraudulently inflating his wealth
-
Trump said to seek government stake in IntelSpeed Read The president and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan reportedly discussed the proposal at a recent meeting
-
US to take 15% cut of AI chip sales to ChinaSpeed Read Nvidia and AMD will pay the Trump administration 15% of their revenue from selling artificial intelligence chips to China
-
NFL gets ESPN stake in deal with DisneySpeed Read The deal gives the NFL a 10% stake in Disney's ESPN sports empire and gives ESPN ownership of NFL Network
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B dealSpeed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance mergerSpeed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profitsSpeed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new highSpeed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
