Trump campaign floats idea of using seized cartel assets to pay for border wall

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: AMERICAN THINKER

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/09/trump_campaign_floats_idea_of_using_seized_cartel_assets_to_pay_for_border_wall.html

by: Thomas Lifson


Unnamed sources within the Trump campaign have floated possibility of in effect making the Mexican cartels pay for the border wall.  In an exclusive report, Jon Conradi of Lifezette (owned by enthusiastic Trump supporter Laura Ingraham) writes:

To fund construction of a new U.S. border wall, Donald Trump and senior advisers are considering various ideas, including the use of assets seized from drug cartels and others in the illicit drug trade.

As the debate over who will pay for the wall dominates the discussion on cable news, sources involved in the pre-planning of the GOP nominee’s Mexico trip told LifeZette the Trump camp is looking for innovative ways to pay for the construction of the border wall — ways that both countries can support. Sensitivities in Mexico regarding Trump’s visit, and specifically paying for the border wall, are running high.

A senior Trump policy adviser stressed the proposal was just one of several funding options being discussed.

Currently:

The amount of money seized from the illicit drug trade last year exceeded $8.7 billion, according to an annual Justice Department’s audit. That amount also does not include any money seized from cartels by the Mexican government.

Obviously, not all of that is cartel money. And the cartel funds may be very hard to track down, as they have available the finest minds of finance to help them hide and invest billions of dollars they annually make.

Brandon Darby and Ildefonso Ortiz of  Breitbart see how existing restraints could be loosened by a President Trump:

Trump’s idea to force the cartels to pay will likely manifest in the form of seizing their assets. It is likely that the U.S. State Department’s diplomatic shackles placed upon the FBI will be removed, as it is common knowledge that the State Department pressures the FBI to balance their law enforcement priorities with diplomatic concerns–a restriction that makes it difficult to properly address Mexican cartels when many of the elected leaders in Mexico are actually surrogates for those very cartels, as Breitbart Texas has reported ad nauseam.

And provides some interesting background:

Trump’s campaign is now led by Stephen Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News who stepped down temporarily to run the campaign. Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project began under Bannon’s leadership and the issue is dear to his heart. The project allows clandestine citizen journalists in several Mexican states that are under direct control from Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel to have a platform to expose the evils of the transnational criminal groups and has a stated goal of warring with the criminals and exposing them for the purpose of ending them.

In addition to providing a voice to the courageous citizen journalists in Mexico, the project singles out cartel commanders one by one and focuses media attention on them until the Mexican authorities are forced to act and go after the criminal boss, thus picking them off one at a time. Bannon co-founded and presided over the project until he went to the Trump campaign and someone with his knowledge on the cartels leading the campaign makes it inevitable that Trump wouldn’t also have the Mexican cartels on his mind each day–along with the grief of the loved ones of the cartels’ countless victims.

[libertybele]

...hmm...I distinctly remember Trump telling me that Mexico was going to pay for the wall.  He even told me to "believe him".   

[aligncare]

#NeverTrump: When sanctimony meets stupid.

[XenaLee]

...hmm...I distinctly remember Trump telling me that Mexico was going to pay for the wall.  He even told me to "believe him".   

In fact....he reiterated that claim just the other day upon his return from Mexico. 

[sinkspur]

Mexico is not going to pay for any wall.  Trump knows it and so does everybody else.   Trump will never build a wall because even Republicans will not fund it.

[Night Hides Not]

#NeverTrump: When sanctimony meets stupid.

Dumba$$ that I am, please explain to me how your non sequitur makes any sense whatsoever.

BTW, I'll put my five taglines up against yours, any day of the week.

[Night Hides Not]

Mexico is not going to pay for any wall.  Trump knows it and so does everybody else.   Trump will never build a wall because even Republicans will not fund it.

Not even a virtual wall? You're putting me in a bad mood, spur... 

[catfish1957]

Dumba$$ that I am, please explain to me how your non sequitur makes any sense whatsoever.

BTW, I'll put my five taglines up against yours, any day of the week.

I got $5 that at least 3 of those 5 go right over Aligncare's head.

[Right_in_Virginia]

...hmm...I distinctly remember Trump telling me that Mexico was going to pay for the wall.  He even told me to "believe him".   

Yes, but Trump never said Mexico was going to write a check.  He always talked about using the trade deficit as one payment tool.

Now he's opening another avenue of payment in addition to the deficit ... seized cartel assets.  Have you an objection to this @libertybele?

[Night Hides Not]

Yes, but Trump never said Mexico was going to write a check.  He always talked about using the trade deficit as one payment tool.

Now he's opening another avenue of payment in addition to the deficit ... seized cartel assets.  Have you an objection to this @libertybele?

No objection from me, as long as that is allowed by the enabling legislation.

I don't pay much attention to what Mr. Trump says, not after he said earlier this year that his pronouncements were nothing more than "suggestions." His "platform" of "Making America Great Again" is whatever he thinks it is at a given moment.

With Reagan, we knew where he stood, from his years of speeches and as a governor of California. Trump's a moving target, but apparently that's part of his charm.

[Night Hides Not]

I got $5 that at least 3 of those 5 go right over Aligncare's head.

Truth be told, I'm really not that big of a dummy...lol, though my two oldest kids are starting to come around, now that they're 29 and 27 respectively. My youngest is 14, and doesn't like to be seen in public with me.

Now my 6 YO grandson is starting to doubt me. He doesn't believe me when I say I jumped out of airplanes when I was in the Army.

[ABX]

Seized cartel assets aren't his to allocate. That money is already earmarked to the local law enforcement agencies that seize it, and only after it is released by the court which can often take years. IE, it isn't the executive branch's money to take and allocate. It first has to go through the court system (4th and 5th Amendments) then current law allocates it to the local law enforcement agency who seized it (18 U.S.C. § 982). It would have to go to congress to change the law to allocate that differently.

Translated, like usual, he is promising things he can't promise and spending money he can't spend.

[ABX]

Mexico is not going to pay for any wall.  Trump knows it and so does everybody else.   Trump will never build a wall because even Republicans will not fund it.

I'll go ahead and predict now, he'll point to the existing fence currently being built (under the Secure Fence Act of 2005), stick his name on it, claim credit for it, and his fans will cheer it as a promise kept.

[Vulcan]

Translated, like usual, he is promising things he can't promise and spending money he can't spend.

Never trust as liberal.  And Donald J Trump is a New York liberal.

[ABX]

Yes, but Trump never said Mexico was going to write a check. He always talked about using the trade deficit as one payment tool.

Now he's opening another avenue of payment in addition to the deficit ... seized cartel assets.  Have you an objection to this @libertybele?

Actually, he used almost those exact words:

"...A hundred percent … They’ll pay, they’ll pay — in one form or another. They may even write us a check by the time they see what happens...."

Video at link
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/04/13/trump-mexico-border-wall-theyll-pay-one-form-another/

[Vulcan]

Actually, he used almost those exact words:

"...A hundred percent … They’ll pay, they’ll pay — in one form or another. They may even write us a check by the time they see what happens...."

Video at link
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/04/13/trump-mexico-border-wall-theyll-pay-one-form-another/

lol!  Facts don't matter to the average Trump supporter.  They have their own version of reality.

[Frank Cannon]

#NeverTrump: When sanctimony meets stupid.

Trump Supporter: When stupid thinks it's smart.

[Suppressed]

BTW, I'll put my five taglines up against yours, any day of the week.

Settle down, "Death Star, War Lord of the West".   

[Frank Cannon]

Donny already told us how he was going to do this.....

Trump reveals how he would force Mexico to pay for border wall

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-would-seek-to-block-money-transfers-to-force-mexico-to-fund-border-wall/2016/04/05/c0196314-fa7c-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html

Donald Trump says he would force Mexico to pay for a border wall as president by threatening to cut off the flow of billions of dollars in payments that immigrants send home to the country, an idea that could decimate the Mexican economy and set up an unprecedented showdown between the United States and a key regional ally.

In a two-page memo to The Washington Post, Trump outlined for the first time how he would seek to force Mexico to pay for his 1,000-mile border fence, which Trump has made a cornerstone of his presidential campaign and which has been repeatedly scoffed at by current and former Mexican leaders.

Looks like he is lying again.

[BuckeyeTexan]

For the record, Trump's August 2015 immigration position paper stated the following.

Mexico must pay for the wall and, until they do, the United States will, among other things: impound all remittance payments derived from illegal wages; increase fees on all temporary visas issued to Mexican CEOs and diplomats (and if necessary cancel them); increase fees on all border crossing cards – of which we issue about 1 million to Mexican nationals each year (a major source of visa overstays); increase fees on all NAFTA worker visas from Mexico (another major source of overstays); and increase fees at ports of entry to the United States from Mexico [Tariffs and foreign aid cuts are also options].

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform

I don't know when Mexico "writing a check" came to be understood as the primary method of payment, but it doesn't appear to have ever been the first consideration or claim of Trump. "One way or another" seems to have been his assertion from day one.

That said. There will be no wall across the entire border. Never was going to be. The solution will be strategic physical barriers, technology, boots on the ground, and an administrative mandate given to Border Patrol agents.

[ABX]

For the record, Trump's August 2015 immigration position paper stated the following.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/immigration-reform

I don't know when Mexico "writing a check" came to be understood as the primary method of payment, but it doesn't appear to have ever been the first consideration or claim of Trump. "One way or another" seems to have been his assertion from day one.

That said. There will be no wall across the entire border. Never was going to be. The solution will be strategic physical barriers, technology, boots on the ground, and an administrative mandate given to Border Patrol agents.

See link about five posts above. Those are almost his exact words. The problem is he uses a lot of words and makes a lot of promises, not to have a real workable plan, but to throw out as red meat. It gets to the point where you don't know when he is telling the truth and when he is using 'truthful hyperbole'

[BuckeyeTexan]

See link about five posts above. Those are almost his exact words. The problem is he uses a lot of words and makes a lot of promises, not to have a real workable plan, but to throw out as red meat. It gets to the point where you don't know when he is telling the truth and when he is using 'truthful hyperbole'

So, April 13, 2016 he said "they’ll pay — in one form or another. They may even write us a check." That still doesn't translate to "writing a check" being the primary method of payment. It tastes like bile in my mouth to say this, but his words were clear. He will extract payment from Mexico through whatever method he can and if those methods are painful enough, Mexico may cry uncle and pony up the dough.

Do I think that is hyperbole? You bet. That's what he's about. But it isn't inconsistent with his original claim that Mexico would pay one way or another.

[Cripplecreek]

I can't imagine cartel assets in this country amounting to a whole lot.

[Oceander]

Just doubling down on stupid.

Whatever boost Trump got from his visit to Mexico he's already thrown away with his last xenophobic speech and fixating on the wall that will not, and cannot, ever be built.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

#NeverTrump: When sanctimony meets stupid.

Well, that was valid to the discussion.