President Donald Trump told Mexican President Peña Nieto that he won the New Hampshire Republican primary because the state is a “drug-infested den,” according to a phone call transcript released Thursday by the Washington Post.
“We have a massive drug problem where kids are becoming addicted to drugs because the drugs are being sold for less money than candy,” Trump said on a January 27 call with Neito. “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.”
The president labeled Mexican drug lords as “pretty tough hombres” and took a shot at Mexican law enforcement, saying “maybe your military is afraid of them, but our military is not.”
Nieto countered Trump’s assertions, saying that the high volume of drugs crossing the Mexican border to the United States is “largely supported by the illegal amounts of money and weapons coming from the United States.”
Over 420 people died of drug overdoses in the state of New Hampshire in 2015 and another 500 were expected in 2016. The state ranks 49th in access to drug treatment programs.
Trump started a rather contentious relationship between himself and Neito when he famously said at his June 2015 campaign announcement speech that “when Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. … They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
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