Did Donald Trump Get 28,000 Mexican Soldiers to Police Border?

Immigration at the Mexican border with the U.S. remains a policy focus for Washington with the White House introducing new plans to deter unlawful crossings, despite pushback from some Democrats.

A traditional area of conservative support, it was also among a range of claims that Donald Trump mentioned as he moved forward with his 2024 presidential run.

Recalling his time in office, the former president also mentioned negotiations with the Mexican government where he claimed he managed to secure thousands of Mexican soldiers to patrol the U.S. border.

The Claim

A YouTube video, posted on January 28, 2023, shows former president Donald Trump saying at a rally in South Carolina: “Strongest border, by the way. How important is that? Strongest border in history. We built hundreds and hundreds of miles of wall, we got Mexico to give us 28,000 soldiers free of charge, no cost, and we had the greatest border in history.”

The Facts

This is a figure that Trump has quoted before in reference to a trade and security agreement signed between the U.S. and Mexico in 2019.

The agreement states that “Mexico will take unprecedented steps to-increase enforcement to curb irregular migration” following threats by Trump to impose new tariffs on Mexican imports.

Mexico also agreed to what was known as the Remain in Mexico policy, which required asylum seekers to wait for their claims to be processed in Mexico rather than in the U.S.

At an April 2022 rally in Delaware, Ohio, Trump referenced both the border agreement and Remain in Mexico (erroneously as “Stay in Mexico”), alleging to have demanded from the country’s “highest representative” (under Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador) 28,000 troops.

Claiming to quote the Mexican representative, Trump said: “‘We’re not gonna give you 28,000 soldiers for free’.

“I said ‘Yes you are, because it’s now Friday afternoon at one o’clock and on Monday morning at 8 o’clock in the morning I’m putting on a 25 percent tariff, all of the cars that you stole (from) our industry, stole 32 percent, every car that comes into the United States is going to have a tax or tariff of 25 percent.

“And every other product you sell into the United States will be tariffed at approximately 25…