Donald Trump rips into Joe Biden's 'failed border policies' during fiery interview on Newsmax
Donald Trump has ripped into President Joe Biden's record on the southern border, saying that his presidential replacement is 'destroying our country'.
Trump defended his own performance as president and said he had left Biden a strong platform during an interview with Dick Morris on Newsmax.
'If he would have done nothing, we would have had right now the strongest border in history,' Trump told the rightwing cable network. 'All he had to do is nothing.'
Trump said his tough approach on immigration had successfully staunched the flow of illegal migrants from Central America.
'I had everything worked out with the other countries, whether it's Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico,' Trump said.
'And even Mexico, stay in Mexico. In other words, these people ought to stay in Mexico, and they couldn't get into our country. And he ended that. It's just crazy what they did.'
During the wide-ranging interview, Trump said he wondered whether Biden was pursuing policies out of incompetence or a pursuit of open borders by stealth.
Trump defended his own legacy and attacked his successor Joe Biden's record on immigration, the Middle East and China during an interview with Newsmax's Dick Morris
Donald Trump, left, says all Biden had to do was 'nothing' and the US would have had the 'strongest border in history'. Biden, right, is pictured at a Memorial Day event in Delaware Sunday
The number of undocumented migrants trying to cross the US's southern border with Mexico surged after Biden was elected last year.
According to unofficial estimates approximately 200,000 migrants have crossed into the United States along the southern border since February 2021.
Trump claimed Biden's soft approach had encouraged waves of migrants to attempt to cross the border.
'We had the strongest in the history of our country,' Trump said.
'Very few people. Drugs were way down. Human trafficking was almost stopped.
'We did things that were amazing, and you take a look at what's happening now. And let me tell you: They're letting people from prisons. They're opening their prisons. Their prisoners are coming in, their murderers, their drug addicts, and drug dealers, by the way.
'And the human traffickers are coming in. They're letting them in. They want them in. They don't want them in their country, so they're saying, 'send them to the USA.'
Trump also attacked Biden's record on North Korea, claiming his 'very good relationship' with Kim Jong Un had helped stave off the nuclear threat from the secretive Asian nation.
'We were getting along. And now he's very hostile toward Biden and the administration, very hostile, very, very hostile,' said Trump.
Elsewhere, Biden's diplomatic efforts had contributed to a deteriorating security situation in the Middle East, Trump said.
'I think what's happened to Israel is one of the great injustices,' he said.
'If you look back 10 or 12 years ago, Israel was so protected by Congress. Congress loved Israel.
'Now, especially if you looked at the House, the House doesn't like Israel. The House is protective of anything other than Israel.'
Trump also told host Dick Morris China was gaining the ascendency in its long-running rivalry with the US.
He said Biden's push to invest in clean energy was allowing its Asian foe to dominate the mining of rare minerals.
'This beautiful, big, large, many, many acres of land, it's got great rare Earth, and we shut it down for environmental reasons.
'It is crazy what we're doing in this country.'
Anderson, (center wearing blue T-shirt and backpack) a six-year-old unaccompanied minor from El Salvador, stands in line with other asylum-seeking children as they identify themselves to a U.S. border patrol agent after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico in La Joya, Texas on May 14. According to unofficial estimates approximately 200,000 migrants have crossed into the United States along the southern border since February 2021
A view of the MP Materials rare earth open-pit mine in Mountain Pass, California. Trump says Biden's push for a greener economy is causing it to fall behind rivals such as China
Trump continued his blistering attack on the Biden administration by criticizing what he described as its soft approach on crime.
'There's no way that a man who is politicking on defund the police wins an election; that I can tell you,' Trump said, adding that federal funding should be withheld from any city that reduces law enforcement funding.
Trump also addressed the Derek Chauvin murder conviction during the wide-ranging 30-minute interview, describing the video of him kneeling on George Floyd's neck as a 'terrible scene'.
'Look, that video was just absolutely a terrible situation. That was uncalled for. Nobody's seen anything like it. That video was so devastating, I guess you could say that trial ended before it started.'
He said Chauvin's 'terrible behavior' did not mean there was systemic racism in America.
