Washington (CNN) Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that the Trump administration is cutting off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, otherwise known as the Northern Triangle, because the countries "could do more" to mitigate the "humanitarian crisis" at the southern border.

On Friday, President Donald Trump announced the US would be cutting funding for the countries, blaming them for migrant caravans that have come to the southern border recently and saying the cuts were because "they haven't done a thing for us."

Mulvaney, echoing the President's sentiments, said that "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," Mulvaney told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

"(That) is not an unreasonable position," he added. "We could prevent a lot of what's happening on the southern border by preventing people from moving into Mexico in the first place."

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