Donald Trump announced plans on Tuesday for the US military to guard the border with Mexico until his long-promised border wall is built.

Speaking at a lunch with Baltic leaders on Tuesday, the president said he has been discussing the idea with his defence secretary, Jim Mattis.

“We’re going to be doing things militarily,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we’re going to be guarding our border with the military. That’s a big step. We really haven’t done that before, or certainly not very much before.”

Soon after, at a joint press conference with the Baltic leaders, the US president criticised current so-called “catch and release” laws concerning undocumented immigrants and said: “We are preparing for the military to secure our border between Mexico and the United States. We have a meeting on it in a little while with Gen Mattis and everybody and I think that it’s something that we have to do.”

The president has expressed frustration, via Twitter, for three days in a row about America’s “weak” border. He is under pressure from the right after signing a $1.3tn budget last month that includes $1.6bn in border wall spending – far short of the $25bn he wanted. That money is mostly earmarked to repair existing fencing rather than for building the sort of concrete barriers Trump envisages.

It would not be first time the military has been deployed at the border. In 2006, under Operation Jump Start, 6,000 troops were sent there in an effort to increase security and surveillance. Over two years, about 29,000 national guard forces participated in the missions, as forces rotated in and out, the Associated Press reported. More than 30 miles of fencing and 13 miles of road were built, and more than 86 miles of vehicle barriers were installed.

With the Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania under potential threat from an aggressive Russia, Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin was again in the spotlight during Tuesday’s visit. When a reporter raised it at the press conference, the president insisted: “Nobody’s been tougher on Russia than I have, and I know you’re nodding yes because everyone agrees when they think about it.”



Timeline ​Donald Trump and Dreamers: a timeline of mixed messages​ Show Upon announcing his presidential bid Donald Trump makes hardline immigration reform central to his campaign and pledges to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca). “I will immediately terminate President Obama’s illegal executive order on immigration,” he says. Weeks after winning the White House, ​​President-elect Trump appears to soften his stance on Dreamers. Despite offering no specific policy he promises to “work something out”. “On a humanitarian basis it’s a very tough situation.” he tells T​​ime magazine. Trump acknowledges the fraught road to a solution, describing Daca as a “very difficult thing for me as I love these kids”. “I have to deal with a lot of politicians,” Trump says. “And I have to convince them that what I’m saying is right.” Trump abruptly announces ​​he will end Daca, phasing out applications for renewal by March 2018. ​​The president insists the decision provides a “window of opportunity for Congress to finally act”. Following talks with Democrats, Trump hints a deal may be close, but suggests it wouldn’t include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers. “We’re not looking at citizenship. We’re not looking at amnesty,” Trump tells reporters. Trump promises to “take the heat” for a bipartisan Daca bill being brokered by senators. But within days he revokes his support, calling the bipartisan plan “a big step backwards”.​ The US government shuts down after negotiations over the budget and a Dreamers solution collapse. On the same day a district judge rules the administration must keep the program open to new applications, a ruling that is later supported by other federal court decisions. With the government reopened with a temporary bill, Trump tells reporters he is now open to a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers “over a period of 10-12 years” if the individual “does a great job, they work hard​”. Trump appears to end the possibility of a bipartisan deal over Daca with a series of furious tweets on Easter Sunday. He blames Democrats and declares: "NO MORE DACA DEAL!" Oliver Laughland

Whereas his election opponent Hillary Clinton was in favour of “windmills”, he continued, the US was now an exporter of energy and “that is not a positive for Russia but it’s certainly a positive for the United States”. Boosted US military spending, a strengthened Nato and the expulsion of 60 diplomats were not to Moscow’s benefit, Trump contended.

“With that being said, I think I could have a very good relationship with President Putin. I think. It’s possible I won’t. And you will know about it. Believe me, this room will know about it before I know about it.”

Trump was also questioned about recent remarks concerning an imminent withdrawal of US troops from Syria, where Russia has helped prop up the dictator Bashar al-Assad. He claimed the fight against Islamic State was “almost completed” and said: “I want to get out. I want to bring out troops back home. I want to start rebuilding our nation.”

At one point during the media conference, he encouraged the Latvian president, Raimonds Vējonis, to take a question from a Baltic reporter as opposed to an American one, quipping: “Real news, not fake news.”

As Trump left the room, he ignored a shouted question about the pornographic actor Stormy Daniels, who alleges they had a sexual encounter.

Trump has been intensifying his rhetoric on immigration in recent days. He called on Republican members of Congress to immediately pass a border bill by using the “Nuclear Option if necessary” – a change to Senate rules so that a simple majority of 51 votes is enough to advance legislation. Trump’s favored solution for extending protections to Dreamers mustered only 39 votes in the Senate.

He also seized on the case of more than 1,200 Central American migrants on a 2,000-mile journey from the Mexico-Guatemalan border and threatened to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) if they were not stopped.

“We will be doing things with Mexico, and they have to do it, otherwise I’m not going to do with the Nafta deal,” told reporters. He said if the “caravan” reaches the US border “our laws are so weak and so pathetic ... it’s like we have no border”.



Mexican officials increased efforts on Tuesday to process the dwindling group and determine whether they had the right to stay in Mexico or should be returned to their countries of origin. Mexico has said such “caravans” of mostly Central Americans, including many escaping violence in Honduras, have occurred since 2010.

Trump spent much of the Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he hosted conservative commentators including the Fox News presenter Sean Hannity. Staffers with Trump included his policy adviser Stephen Miller, a chief architect of anti-immigration policies.

On Monday, White House officials said they were crafting a legislative package aimed at closing immigration “loopholes”.