Exclusive — President Donald Trump on Immigration: ‘I Don’t Want to Have Anyone Coming in That’s on Welfare’

President Donald Trump, in an exclusive Oval Office interview with Breitbart News on Monday afternoon, said he does not want immigrants coming to the United States to be dependent on welfare programs.

“I don’t want to have anyone coming in that’s on welfare,” Trump told Breitbart News in the more-than-40-minute interview in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon. “We have a problem, because we have politicians that are not strong, or they have bad intentions, or they want to get votes, because they think if they come in they’re going to vote Democrat, you know, for the most part.”

Trump’s answer came in response to Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alexander Marlow citing a statistic from a report the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) published in December that over 60 percent of non-citizen families entering the United States end up on welfare. The report found that 63 percent of non-citizen households end up on welfare, whereas just 35 percent of native-born American households end up on welfare—a major disparity.

The report also shows that in non-citizen households with children, welfare usage skyrockets to 79.6 percent.

Trump added that while it is his belief that some industries need more workers brought in in various capacities, the Democrats and the left are pushing to bring anyone and everyone into the country regardless of the consequences.

“They’ll take anybody into this country and we’re not allowing it, but because of the success of the country economically, some people say—I blame myself, but that’s a good blame not a bad blame—but because of the country’s success and you need workers here,” Trump said. “You do need workers. You have homes in Houston, and they can’t get people to build the homes—and lots of other places. But because of what’s happened, and because of the people coming up, they want them to come in and they don’t care how they come in.”

From there, Trump added that he does not want people coming into the United States who are going to be dependent on welfare programs.

“I don’t want people that need welfare,” Trump said. “We owe a lot of money. We’re taking care of everybody in the world’s military. But now as you know I got over $100 billion from NATO countries. But that’s not enough, that’s not enough, we’re paying for massive portions of NATO. We shouldn’t be paying for this. They should be paying their own way, and we can help them, but we shouldn’t be paying for—and by the way, here’s a beauty. We pay for their military defense and then they take advantage of us on trade in addition. It used to be in order to have the trade we take care of them—but they get us both ways.”

He completed his thought in this portion of the interview by adding that it’s “no good” that the Democrats want to bring in people from other parts of the world who are dependent on welfare for decades.

“But I don’t like the idea of people coming in and going on welfare for 50 years, and that’s what they want to be able to do—and it’s no good,” Trump said.

This is the first of several stories to follow from this exclusive Breitbart News interview with President Trump in the Oval Office.

*Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour*

This photograph is provided by THE WHITE HOUSE as a courtesy and may be printed by the subject(s) in the photograph for personal use only. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not otherwise be reproduced, disseminated or broadcast, without the written permission of the White House Photo Office. This photograph may not be used in any commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.

Alexander Marlow is the Editor-in-Chief of Breitbart News, Matthew Boyle is the Washington Political Editor of Breitbart News, Amanda House is the Deputy Political Editor of Breitbart News, and Charlie Spiering is the Senior White House Correspondent for Breitbart News.