Businessman directs wrath at Mexico, which he accuses of ‘bringing their worst people’ to America, including criminals and ‘rapists’

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

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Donald Trump, the 69-year-old businessman best known for his “You’re fired” catchphrase on The Apprentice, announced he was running for president on Tuesday with an eccentric speech attacking Mexican immigrants and promising to build a great wall along the US’s southern border.

Trump has flirted with the idea of standing for the country’s highest office for decades, but on Tuesday made it official on a stage in the basement of his Trump Tower building in Manhattan, in front of eight American flags.

“Sadly the American dream is dead, but if I get elected president I will bring it back,” he said. “Bigger, better and stronger than ever before.”

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Trump took to the stage as speakers bellowed out Neil Young’s 1989 song Rockin’ in the Free World, and went on to attack most of the rest of the world as he blamed Barack Obama for letting the country collapse to the level of “a third world country”.

Most of his wrath was directed at Mexico, which he accused of “bringing their worst people” to America, including criminals and “rapists”.

“They’re sending us not the right people,” he said, adding: “The US has become a dumping ground for everyone else’s problems.

“They’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing their problems,” he said. “They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some I assume are good people but I speak to border guards and they tell us what we are getting.”

He promised that as President Trump, one of his first actions would be to build a “great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall”.

Trump said that Obama, and previous administrations, had allowed Mexico, China and other countries to take American jobs and prosperity. “China has our jobs, Mexico has our jobs,” he said.

“Our enemies are getting stronger and stronger by the day, and the US as a country is getting weaker and weaker. How stupid are our leaders, how stupid are our politicians to let this happen? Our president doesn’t have a clue.”

Trump said the Chinese leadership was much smarter than Obama and his team. “It’s like the New England Patriots and Tom Brady [playing] a high school team.”

He added: “Politicians are all talk and no action. They will not bring us, believe me, to the promised land.”

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Also at the top of his to-do list as president would be scrapping Obamacare, the current president’s signature healthcare legislation, and drastically cutting spending on education. He described Obamacare as a “disaster” and “a big lie”.

“Obamacare is going to be amazingly destructive,” he told the crowd beside a banner reading TRUMP: MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Trump said he would replace Obamacare with a new system that would be “much better and much less expensive”.

He also called for a radical reduction on education spending, saying “people are tired of spending more money on education per capita than any other country”.

He accused Republican rival Jeb Bush of being weak on education, saying: “How the hell can you vote for this guy?”

Trump also pledged that “nobody will be tougher on Isis than Donald Trump”, and that he would be “the greatest jobs president that God ever made”.

He told the crowd not to believe government statistics showing unemployment had fallen to 5.4%. “Our real unemployment is 18-20%, don’t believe their 5.6% [in fact the official figure is 5.4%]. China has our jobs, Mexico has our jobs. I’ll bring back our jobs and bring back our money.”

Trump, who has long flirted with the idea of standing for president, said he knew that standing for office would be a “tough” job but somebody had to stand up to stop the country “dying”. “We’re dying, we’re dying,” he said. “We need money, and we need the right people.”

As required by campaign finance law, Trump revealed his net worth before a crowd holding what looked like homemade Trump for president banners which were actually handed out by Trump campaign staff. “I don’t need anyone else’s money, I’m really rich,”he said. “I have total net worth of $8.73bn. I’m not doing that to brag. I’m doing that to show that’s the kind of thinking or country needs.”

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Trump enters an increasingly crowded presidential race, punctuated by such big names as former Florida governor Bush, who is the son and brother of two former US presidents, and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

Based on guidelines recently announced by the television networks, Trump could play a prominent role in the upcoming nationally televised Republican debate in August.

Those who rank in the top 10 in national polls – and Trump currently does, although he’s close to the bottom – will earn a place on the debate stage. That could place Trump in a debate alongside some leading candidates.

“Selfishly, the networks would put me on because I get great ratings,” Trump said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

The Associated Press contributed to this report