Fox News host Brian Kilmeade said President Trump made a mistake promising that Mexico would pay to build a border wall between it and the United States.
Kilmeade made the assertion on Thursday morning during a Fox & Friends segment with co-hosts Ainsley Earhardt and Steve Doocy. The trio discussed the Trump administration’s decision to reallocate $3.6 billion from Pentagon programs toward building 175 miles of border wall.
The hosts criticized “sensationalist” media reporting on the decision, targeting headlines in the Daily Beast, the Washington Post, and NBC News. Kilmeade also focused on Democrats, accusing them of ignoring military cuts under former President Barack Obama.
“[The Pentagon is] are taking a small percentage and reprogramming and delaying projects, not canceling them,” Kilmeade said. “But it didn’t stop the sensationalist headlines.”
“The Daily Beast writes the headline, ‘Trump raids elementary schools to pay for wall; Mexico off the hook.’ He is right. The president never should have said Mexico is going to pay for the wall,” Kilmeade continued. “He says they’re going to get it in fees at border crossings.”
Doocy jumped in to defend Trump, saying he thinks the president believed Mexico could be made to pay for the wall, and that Trump’s campaign promise was sincere.
“I think he did think initially that he would find a way for Mexico to pay for it, but, as we know, that did not work,” Doocy said.
[Also read: Trump admits he never thought Mexico would write a check for a border wall]
