Rick Santorum: Trump's 'Closing the Border Is a Bad Idea'

While former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., understands President Donald Trump's being "upset with Mexico," the CNN political pundit rejects the move of closing down the border.

"I think the idea of closing the border is a bad idea," Santorum told CNN's "State of the Union." "I understand why the president's doing it. He's upset with Mexico. He has every reason to be upset with Mexico."

Most of the migrants seeking asylum are not Mexican, though, Santorum said, acknowledging "Mexico could solve this problem," because it's failing to do enough to stop Central American migration to the U.S. border.

"[Trump] sort of flails and makes what I think are not particularly helpful charges against Mexico," Santorum said. "But the core of the problem is Mexico and he needs to go after them."

Hoping to leverage Mexico into action on the southern border crisis, President Trump teased a "very good likelihood" of closing the border, because Mexico is "going to have to do something."

"I'll just close the border, and with a deficit like we have with Mexico and have had for many years, closing the border would be a profit-making operation" he said Friday. "When you close the border also you will stop a lot of the drugs from coming in."

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