[King:] The president this week picking a new immigration fight despite loud warnings, very loud warnings that could have a damaging economic impact. The administration says it is pulling aid to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras on grounds those countries are not doing enough to stem the flow of migrants heading toward the United States. The president is also poised to close parts of the U.S. border with Mexico so that he can redirect resources to stop illegal crossings. It's the latest sign he likes immigration as his lead re-election calling card, even though many Republican strategists worry closing the border could hurt what they see as the best White House political asset, the strong economy. CNN's Christine Romans here with the details of the dollars and cents with the president's big gamble.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Business Correspondent:] John, an economic calamity. That's what the Chamber of Commerce says would happen if President Trump shuts the border with Mexico. Now, the chamber says it is would tank the markets and hurt the U.S. economy even if this were just a short closure. Here's what is at stake. Truck and rail routes carry $1.7 billion in goods every single day back and forth across that border supporting five million American jobs. U.S. manufacturers have supply chains that crisscross Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Shut down the Mexico border, you hurt American factories, and American workers. But this president has a very simplistic view of trade. Imports are bad and the trade deficit means the U.S. is losing money. The U.S. ran a trade deficit last year of $81 billion with Mexico. Here's the president, Friday.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] With the deficit like we have with Mexico and we had for many years, closing the border will be a profit-making operation.
[Romans:] John, think of that a moment. The president advocating shutting the border to balance the trade deficit. It just doesn't work that way. The Chamber of Commerce points out that the U.S. exports more to Mexico than it does to China. Think corn, soybeans, beef, dairy, pork, it's a long list, and those imports from Mexico are parts and tools that feed America's factories. Now, American manufacturers and farmers are already reeling from higher costs because of tariffs and retaliatory tariffs in the president's trade war with China. This move now on the Mexico border, many business experts say is just the wrong call. John?
[King:] Christine Romans, appreciate that. So let's dissect that. The Chamber of Commerce says it would be a calamity. Many business experts say it would be wrong. Political advisers in his own party say, Mr. President, please, no, which means he'll do it. I don't mean it to even sound that way because it's trademark Trump. He says these are the same people who told me I can't win the nomination. Stop talking about immigration, stop talking about trade that way. You'll never be president. Don't impose these tariffs. It will tank the economy. Don't stand up to China, it will ruin everything. So the president says, no, I'm going with my gut.
[Raju:] It feels a lot like the government shutdown fight in some ways because
[King:] Which Republican people said would hurt him.
[Raju:] Exactly. Republicans were warning him not to go this route, not to demand money for the border wall, saying that he would we were going to lose that fight. The president dug in. Of course, that led to the longest government shutdown in history. The president ultimately had to reverse himself and agree to re-open the government. That's the thing that concern for people who are advising him not to is that, what do you really get out of this? You know, probably going to have to backtrack anyways so what's the point of getting into this messy fight, to begin with. But the president has always been further than most of his party on to the right on immigration, these launched fights that they have not been willing to take. The question will be how much of his party will ultimately stick with him if he does, in fact, goes this route? I think you'll see a divide.
[Pace:] From a political perspective, it's not surprising that the president would sort of brush off these warnings because he's heard this over and over again and the bad, you know, impact on the economy hasn't really happened, and his poll numbers have stayed remarkably stable. On the economic side of this though, the thing that his advisers worry about and the thing that Republicans worry about is that he's testing his luck. That, you know, if you just look at cycles of the American economy we actually are probably due for a downturn at some point and he just keeps putting more and more pressure on that economy. And at a certain point, it's going it is probably going to to show an impact, and he's only going to be able to kind of hold that off for so long. He just keeps going forward and forward and pushing that as far as he can right now.
[King:] And you have this intersection of two issues where the president has very strong feelings, trade, and immigration, where he does trust his instincts over what the experts tell him. Listen to here's a debate here, Mick Mulvaney and Dick Durbin, the chief of staff to the president and a Democratic senator on this idea, do you cut off the aids to these countries. Mulvaney says yes, they're not doing enough to stop the flow of migrants. Dick Durbin says, no, you're going to make it worse.
[Mick Mulvaney, Acting White House Chief Of Staff:] Mexico could help us do it. They need to do a little bit more. Honduras could do more. Nicaragua could do more. El Salvador could do more. And if we're going to give these countries hundreds of millions of dollars, we would like them to do more. That, Jake, I would respectfully submit to you, is not an unreasonable position.
[Sen. Dick Durbin , Illinois:] What we need to do is focus on what's happening in Central America where three countries are dissembling before our eyes and people are desperately coming to the United States. The president is cutting off aid to these countries will not solve that problem.
[King:] Mulvaney says to use a stick, Durbin says well, use that stick, you make all those problems worse and more people will flee.
[Kane:] A week ago Mick Mulvaney was encouraging Trump to be the party of healthcare, to make the Republicans the party of healthcare. He walked over to us at the Senate luncheon, Trump declared the party of healthcare. He always comes back to immigration, trade, America first, nativist views.
[King:] Well, let's see what happens, and we're still waiting by the way on that healthcare plan. Yes, we're still waiting for that one. Up next, another public split between Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the House Democratic leadership.