Peru’s Kuczynski jokes about ending US ties if Trump wins

LIMA, Peru – Peru’s President-elect Pedro Pablo Kuczynski has joked that his country will sever ties with the United States if Donald Trump wins the presidency.

Asked by a local reporter what would happen if the Republican won November’s U.S. election, he said amid laughs that “we are going to grab a saw and cut.”

“He wants to put up a wall between the United States and Latin America, and make the Mexicans pay for it. Isn’t that too much?” he said in reference to Trump’s proposal for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border.

Kuczynski, 77, worked for decades in the U.S. and is married to an American woman. He made the comments Tuesday after receiving a call from President Barack Obama congratulating him on winning Peru’s presidential runoff earlier this month.