The Cable
The Cable goes inside the foreign policy machine, from Foggy Bottom to Turtle Bay, the White House to Embassy Row.

Guatemalan President Offers Trump ‘Cheap Labor’ To Build Border Wall

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has a laugh at the expense of Donald Trump.

GettyImages-505036622
GettyImages-505036622

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is a funny guy. Before he was elected to office, he rose to fame as a TV comedian. Now, he’s having a laugh at the expense of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales is a funny guy. Before he was elected to office, he rose to fame as a TV comedian. Now, he’s having a laugh at the expense of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

Speaking during a Facebook Live interview by the New York Times en Español, Morales offered Trump cheap labor from his country to build the businessman’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. A video of the exchange, posted Tuesday, is below:

For those not fluent in Spanish, here’s what Morales said. “To the gentleman who wants to build a wall, I offer cheap labor. We have high-quality labor, and we’ll gladly build. Tell us the dimensions, and we know how to do it.”

When it came to U.S. immigration policy, Morales, who took office earlier this year, offered a more serious take.

“We believe — although I have no reason to involve myself in U.S. migratory policy — we believe that it is necessary to think about migratory reform where many people who are there in an irregular manner will be regularized,” he said. Morales added that legalizing undocumented immigrants in the United States would benefit the country because they would “contribute more and pay more taxes.”

Photo credit: LUIS ECHEVERRIA/Getty Images

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.