Trump: 'I love the Mexican people'

Melanie Eversley | USA TODAY

Republican presidential candidate and real estate mogul Donald Trump took to television Wednesday night to defend his recent comments that Mexicans immigrating to the United States are rapists, and to say Macy's "folded" when it cut business ties with him.

Speaking on CNN, Trump clarified his recent comments that people from Mexico and other immigrants are "killers and rapists." He told host Don Lemon, "I love the Mexican people. I've had a great relationship with Mexico and the Mexican people."

Trump made the comments as a parade of companies have cut ties with him, prompted by his comments about Mexicans. Among them is the Univision network, which announced it would not air the July 12 Miss Universe pageant. Trump is co-owner of the Miss Universe organization.

NBC announced it would not air the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, and Macy's announced it would no longer carry products that bearing Trump's name.

The mogul, however, said he obtained the information that supports his claims that immigrants coming to the United States are criminals from the Fusion network, which he said Wednesday is owned by Univision. Fusion is a joint venture between Univision and ABC.

"Go to Fusion and pick up the stories on rape," Trump said. "All I'm doing is telling the truth."

When Don Lemon replied that the stories were about women being assaulted, not criminals coming across the border, Trump replied, "Well, somebody's doing the raping, Don! I mean somebody's doing it! Who's doing the raping? Who's doing the raping?" he asked.

Trump said his anguish is connected to frustration at job losses in America. "Our people are not smart and they're taking a lot of our business away, our jobs away,"

Trump also said he was not perturbed that Macy's decided to end its relationship with him.

"It's not a very big business for me," he said. "It's ties."

He said he was never crazy about the business he did with Macy's "because the ties were made in China."

The retailer was responding to the members of the public who criticized his comments as prejudiced.

"They folded like dogs," Trump said. "That's the problem with our country — everybody folds under pressure ... you see two pickets and they say, 'Oh gee, we have to do this.'"

Upon announcing it would no longer carry Trump-related products, Macy's said in a statement: "We are disappointed and distressed about recent remarks about immigrants from Mexico. We do not believe the disparaging characterizations portray an accurate picture of the many Mexicans, Mexican Americans and Latinos who have made so many valuable contributions to the success of our nation."