The Washington Post ran a story on Monday night detailing how immigrant workers at the site of a Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., were "wary" of their employer.
On Tuesday, that man, Donald Trump, said that he was "on the front page of the Washington Post because I'm building a big hotel and we have a lot of immigrants — and, uh, legal immigrants — working in the building."
"I love the Mexican people," Trump seemed to be saying to radio host Jeff Kuhner, when he was apparently interrupted by noises from a cell phone. "I have many Mexican people working for me. In fact, if you read today's Washington Post, I'm on the front page of the Washington Post because I'm building a big hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue and we have a lot of immigrants — and, uh, legal immigrants — working in the building."
Trump's sunny portrayal of the construction project and Post article would seem to stand in contrast to the content of that article. The piece examines the reaction of immigrants working on the hotel since the real estate mogul has come under heavy criticism for saying in his presidential announcement speech that the people crossing America's border with Mexico were "bringing drugs" and were "rapists."
"Do you think that when we're hanging out there from the eighth floor that we're raping or selling drugs?" asks one worker quoted in the story. "We're risking our lives and our health. A lot of the chemicals we deal with are toxic."
Meanwhile, the Post reports that some workers it spoke to "acknowledged that they remain in the country illegally."
In the interview, when Trump was finished noting that his "subcontractors" had hired immigrants who were "air conditioning people and the sheetrock and the electricians," and that "we're sort of all immigrants, Jeff," he reiterated his controversial argument.
"The Mexican government is sending over their worst people," he said. "They're pushing them over the border. They're sending criminals, they're sending rapists, they're sending drug dealers."