Gregory Korte

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — President Obama blasted what he called a "half-baked" campaign proposal from Donald Trump Tuesday, saying the billionaire's plan to make Mexico pay for a border wall could actually lead to more illegal immigration.

The front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination released his long-awaited plan to pay for the border wall in a statement to The Washington Post, saying he would cut Mexico off from remittances — the private payments from people in the United States to family members across the border — until Mexico pays for a wall.

"The notion that we're going to track every Western Union bit of money that's being sent to Mexico — good luck with that," Obama said, noting that the the recently released Panama Papers show the difficulty in tracking money through the global financial system. He said many of the remittances from the United States to Mexico come from legal immigrants.

Plus, Obama said, destabilizing the Mexican economy by threatening to withhold money would only risk having more immigrants flee to the United States to find jobs.

Trump's proposal, he said, was "not thought through, and primarily put forward for political consumption."

"People expect the president of the United States and the elected officials in this country to treat these problems seriously, to put forward policies that have been examined, analyzed, are effective, where unintended consequences are taken into account," he said. "They don't expect half-baked notions coming out of the White House. We can't afford that."

Obama: Trump doesn't understand foreign policy or the world

In recent months, Obama has addressed Trump's agenda directly and indirectly, criticizing his views on surveillance of Muslim Americans, immigration, nuclear policy. But he said it's reached the point where Trump's opinions are causing damage to America's standing in the world.

"I've been very clear earlier that I'm constantly getting questions from foreign leaders about some of the wackier proposals that have been made," he said.

But he said it's not just Trump's views that are concerning, he said. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is "just as draconian," especially on immigration, Obama said.