On Morning Joe Wednesday, legendary journalist Bob Woodward got his opportunity to press the leading Republican candidate on exactly how he would go about forcing Mexico to pay for his border wall — the hallmark claim of his candidacy that continues to draw cheers from his record crowds.

Fresh off of his victorious Tuesday finishes in Hawaii, Michigan, and Mississippi, real estate mogul Donald Trump called into the MSNBC morning show to discuss his campaign platforms and recent primary wins. As questions went around the panel, Woodward opened with, “I want to ask about the wall you’re going to get Mexico to build. We were talking about this earlier. A number of my colleagues say you haven’t answered the question how you’re going to do that and you know from business somebody can have a good idea but how are they going to do it? And can you give us some idea?”

Trump began, “Sure, okay. First of all, Mexico is not going to build it, we’re going to build it.” The real estate mogul — whose total delegate count now sits at 461 after Tuesday night — continued, “The reason they’re going to pay and the way they’ll pay is this: we have a trade deficit now with Mexico of $58 billion a year and the wall is going to cost $10 billion a year,” repeating the talking point he was used on the subject out on the campaign trail.

Woodward, identifying the flaws of the frontrunner’s argument, pushed, “But they’re a sovereign nation… how do you get a sovereign nation that says they don’t want to pay to pay?”

After more Trumpisms along the line of subsidies talk and just how powerful a wall it would be, Woodward continued, “I’m sorry to press on this, but how would you grab that money? If they say no, would you be willing to go to war to make sure we get the money to pay for this wall?”

“Trust me, Bob,” the likely GOP nominee assured Woodward. “When I rejuvenate our military, Mexico won’t be playing with us with war, that I can tell you.”

After the interview, cohost Joe Scarborough turned to the iconic journalist to see if Trump had in fact sufficiently answered his questions. Woodward’s take?

Simply, “He has not given an answer.”

Watch the above exchange from MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

[image via screengrab]

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J.D. Durkin (@jiveDurkey) is the Senior Editor of Mediaite.

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