PHILADELPHIA -- President Donald Trump has discussed with congressional leaders a proposal to slap a 20 percent tax on imports from Mexico as a method of paying for a wall along the southern border, his spokesman said Thursday.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Trump has yet to make a final decision about how the U.S. will recoup the costs of his proposed border wall.
The news came as Trump, at a GOP retreat in Philadelphia, called on fellow Republicans to help him enact "great and lasting change."
The president was greeted by cheers as he took the stage in a hotel ballroom, telling senators and House members, "This Congress is going to be the busiest Congress in decades -- maybe ever."
[PRESIDENT TRUMP: Details on administration, previous coverage, photos, videos]
Trump addressed lawmakers in Philadelphia shortly after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled a trip to Washington next week to meet with the new president, a result of their disagreement over which of their countries would pay to build Trump's promised wall.
Both Pena Nieto and Spicer said their countries were interested in maintaining positive relations. "We will keep the lines of communication open," Spicer told reporters in Washington on Thursday morning, adding that the White House would "look for a date to schedule something in the future." The Mexican president tweeted that his government was willing to work with the United States "to reach agreements that benefit both nations."
In Trump's remarks to lawmakers, he cast the cancellation of his engagement with Pena Nieto as a mutual decision.
"The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting," Trump said. "Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless," he added.
The wall is part of Trump's plan to halt illegal immigration to the U.S., and he has long insisted that Mexico will pay. Pena Nieto insists his country will not.
On the flight back to Washington, Spicer told reporters traveling with the president that the wall could be funded by a plan to levy a 20 percent tax on imports from countries, including Mexico, with which the United States has a trade deficit. But, he added, "right now we are focused on Mexico."
Spicer said the plan could raise $10 billion a year.
"If you think about what a border tax on imports from countries like Mexico that we have a huge trade deficit does, that's really going to provide the funding," Spicer said, according to a pool report.
The announcement sparked confusion across Washington, and the White House tried to backtrack. Spicer later clarified that the 20 percent tax is one of several options under consideration and that Trump hasn't settled on it as the way to recoup costs for building the wall. During a hastily arranged briefing in the West Wing, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus also said the import tax was one idea in "a buffet of options."
Funding for wall
Republican leaders said Thursday that Congress will move legislation this year providing up to $15 billion to build a wall along the Mexican boundary.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters at the GOP strategy retreat in Philadelphia that they were planning legislation to appropriate $12 billion to $15 billion for constructing the wall. Ryan said the goal is to complete that and other major bills in 2017, but the leaders offered no details on how the wall would be paid for, saying they would wait until the Trump administration proposes legislation.
Congress will pay for "the construction of the physical barrier on the border," Ryan said.
"We intend to address the wall issue ourselves," said McConnell.
Pressed on whether construction would increase federal deficits, Ryan said Republicans are fiscal conservatives. He said strengthening the economy and replacing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act were two of the best ways to bolster the government's budget.
"If we're going to be spending on things like infrastructure, we're going to find the fiscal space to pay for that" in a budget Congress plans to write this spring, Ryan said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who's clashed with Trump since last year's campaign expressed likely opposition to the plan.
"I'm not inclined to support it," McCain told reporters.
McCain said he'd await details from Trump's Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly.
"History shows you can tunnel under them, you can breach them," McCain said of border fences.
Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., would not commit to approving the billions Trump is seeking.
"Look, I haven't seen cost estimates, I don't know what exactly he's talking about," Gardner told CNN on Thursday. He said making good on border security was "an issue of trust with the American people."
Also objecting was Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, whose vast west Texas district runs along the Mexican border for 800 miles. Much of the state's territory along its boundary with Mexico is privately owned and some is within Big Bend National Park.
"Building a wall is the most expensive and least effective way to secure the border," Hurd said in a statement.
Hurd said it's "impossible to build a physical wall" in much of his district's terrain, saying to do so "would negatively impact the environment, private property rights and economy."
The North American Free Trade Agreement has allowed trade between the the U.S. and Mexico to mushroom. Every day, goods valued at $1.4 billion cross the U.S.-Mexico border, and millions of jobs are linked to trade on both sides. About 80 percent of Mexican exports -- automobiles, flat-screen TVs, avocados -- are sold to the United States.
Half of all nonagricultural goods enter the U.S. duty free, according to the office of the U.S. trade representative. The other half face import tariffs averaging 2 percent.
During his speech at the GOP policy retreat in Philadelphia, Trump described NAFTA as a "terrible deal, a total disaster for the United States," and said that the move of manufacturing to Mexico cost millions of American jobs and the closure of "thousands and thousands of plants" across the United States.
Separately, the man in charge of protecting the United States' borders was ousted Thursday. Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan said he was asked to leave and decided to resign rather than fight the request, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the brief videoconference in which Morgan informed senior agents of the change.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was not intended to be made public.
Morgan was named to the post in June and took office in October.
Voter-fraud inquiry
In Philadelphia, the president spoke about his agenda in broad terms and then skipped a planned question-and-answer session. He gave the lawmakers no specific marching orders for tackling the repeal and replace of the Affordable Care Act, one of the most complicated issues Congress is expected to tackle this year.
Spicer had said Trump on Thursday would continue to exercise his executive authority to implement his agenda, but an event listed on the president's public schedule was postponed and could now take place today.
The spokesman said Trump plans to sign an executive action to commission an investigation into widespread voter fraud, but did not provide more details as to what it might entail.
Trump had announced in a pair of tweets early Wednesday that a "major investigation" will look at those registered to vote in more than one state, "those who are illegal and ... even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time)." Depending on results, the Republican tweeted on his sixth day in office, "we will strengthen up voting procedures!"
He went further later, claiming: "You have people registered in two states. They're registered in a New York and a New Jersey. They vote twice."
"There are millions of votes, in my opinion," Trump told ABC. "Of those votes cast, none of them come to me. None of them come to me."
But House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz on Thursday broke with Trump, saying he sees no evidence of voter fraud in the 2016 election and says his committee won't investigate it.
The Utah Republican says Trump is free to order the Justice Department to investigate the issue, but he's not interested in opening a congressional inquiry. Chaffetz told reporters at the retreat in Philadelphia that voting happens at the local level, adding, "I don't see any evidence" of widespread fraud.
All 50 states and the District of Columbia have finalized their election results with no reports of the kind of widespread fraud that Trump alleges.
In November's election, Trump easily won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes to Democrat Hillary Clinton. That popular vote tally is apparently gnawing at Trump, who worries that it has led to questions about the legitimacy of his victory, aides and associates say.
But senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told NBC's Today show Thursday that Trump's call for an investigation is not an "ego issue." "I think everybody's cherry-picking to call this an ego trip," she said. "Why not have an investigation? What's everybody afraid of?"
The White House also is considering steps to restrict the flow of refugees to the U.S., and negotiate individual trade deals with countries that signed the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. Trump took steps earlier this week to withdraw the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying the agreement puts U.S. workers at a disadvantage.
And during a visit today to the Defense Department, Trump is expected to ask the Pentagon for ways to accelerate the fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria.
Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Erica Werner, Errin Haines Whack, Jonathan Lemire, Eric Tucker, Matthew Daly, Lolita C. Baldor, Elliot Spagat and Alicia A. Caldwell of The Associated Press and by Joshua Partlow, Philip Rucker, Kelsey Snell, Karen DeYoung, William Branigin, Jenna Johnson and Gabriela Martinez of The Washington Post.
A Section on 01/27/2017