Enrique Peña Nieto, the President of Mexico, has cancelled his visit to the United States after an intense row with US President Donald Trump over the phone. By the end of the call, Nieto had called off his trip to America, which was in an official capacity and would’ve probably mended some of the nations’ tensions if it had gone well, and the two world leaders had fallen out. The Washington Post broke the story first, and the media have been going crazy about it.
Basically, Nieto wants Trump to tell everyone that the Mexican government will not be paying for his proposed wall along the southern border between the US and Mexico, and Trump doesn’t want to do that.
So, the two have reached an impasse and they’re no closer to repairing their tensions. To be fair, it’s a long road back from some of the things that Trump has said about Mexico and its people, and he’s not helping himself by being so stubborn.
This phone call between Trump and Nieto took place on 20 February, but it has only just been confirmed by officials from each nation’s government. The Washington Post was told by these officials that Nieto called off his plans to visit the White House after the US President refused “to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund construction of a border wall.” How stubborn is this guy? He still thinks they’re going to pay for the wall? Is he high?
White House official says things are awkward between the US and Mexico
According to an official from the White House who spoke to CNN, any potential meeting between the US and Mexican Presidents right now would be really awkward and only serve to make things worse as the yelling would continue. The White House official said that the phone call between Trump and Nieto recently was “less hostile” than the one they had a year ago (which was right after Trump was inaugurated and therefore quite a trying time for Mexico), but “no more productive.”
A Mexican political official, whose identity was kept anonymous by the Post, said that Trump “lost his temper” during the conversation with Nieto, while American officials have said that he got “frustrated and exasperated” when the Mexican leader requested that he tell the people that Mexico might not pay for the border wall.
It’s the one campaign promise that Trump has managed to cling onto. It pleased the conservative crowds on the trail in 2016, and if he concedes to Mexico, then his credibility will pretty much disappear.
The wall has always been a point of contention between Trump and Nieto
Ever since Trump was elected, the border wall that he promised the American people that he would get Mexico to pay for – the border wall that was designed to keep Mexican people, who he generalised as being “rapists,” out of America – has always been an awkward spot that divided the two nations.
Nieto has always maintained that Mexico will not pay for the construction of the wall, and Trump has always maintained that through the art of negotiation, he would get them to pay, so throughout The Donald’s entire Presidency, this has been a point of contention – and it looks like it still is, as it’s the reason that Nieto has cancelled his visit to the US.
According to the officials who have been talking to the press, “a considerable portion” of this year’s phone call between Trump and Nieto was dedicated to talking about the proposed border wall, which is no closer to being a reality than it was during Trump’s campaign speeches two years ago. The Mexican officials say that Nieto cancelled the visit “to avoid public embarrassment” (since his approval from his own people is on the rocks), and when Trump refused to accept that Mexico wouldn’t be paying for his wall, “that proved to be the deal breaker.”
