As Trump Orders Wall, Mexico’s President Considers Canceling U.S. Trip

As Trump Orders Wall, Mexico’s President Considers Canceling U.S. Trip

The New York Times
By AZAM AHMED
2 hrs ago

MEXICO CITY — President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico is considering canceling his meeting with President Trump in Washington next week, officials said Wednesday, responding to broad public outrage in Mexico over Mr. Trump’s announcement that he will construct a wall along the southern border of the United States.

Mexicans across the political spectrum have been calling for Mr. Peña Nieto to cancel the meeting since Mr. Trump signaled his intention to build the wall late Tuesday night.

“In light of today’s ambush and ‘my way or the highway’ policies, Mexico would do well in carefully re-evaluating the president’s trip next week,” Arturo Sarukhan, the former Mexican ambassador to the United States, said Wednesday morning.

On Twitter, others had less measured words for Mr. Trump’s announcement, calling it “an offense to Mexico,” a “slap in the face” and a “monument to lies.”

Mr. Trump’s executive order complicates a relationship that had already grown tense during the American election campaign. His promises to build a wall, deport millions of Mexicans and cancel the North American Free Trade Agreement became harder for Mexicans to ignore. But Wednesday’s broadside, coming as the foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, was to begin his first day of preliminary talks in Washington, touched a new low in bilateral relations.

Pressure has been building on Mr. Peña Nieto, whose approval ratings are near the single digits, to respond more forcefully to Mr. Trump’s provocations. So far he has resisted such calls, preferring dialogue to confrontation. But having his foreign minister greeted with an order for building a border wall was likely to chip away at that resolve.

Mr. Videgaray orchestrated Mr. Trump’s visit to Mexico during the campaign last year, when he was finance minister. The move drew such widespread condemnation that Mr. Videgaray resigned his post.

After Mr. Trump’s victory, Mr. Videgaray’s fortunes revived and he became foreign minister. But any hope that his invitation could be leveraged in Mexico’s favor now seem dashed.

Many Mexicans said they felt conciliatory gestures were no longer an option.

“It’s like we are Charlie Brown and they are Lucy with the football,” said Jorge Castañeda, a former foreign minister of Mexico. “Peña is a weak president in a weak country at a weak moment, but he has to find a way to get some official backbone.”

While Mexico does not want a war of words — or trade — with Washington, in recent days top government officials have gone on record saying they would be willing to walk away from Nafta if the negotiations did not suit Mexico’s interests. That position was unthinkable even a few months ago.

For a new American president, Mr. Trump is both extremely well known in Mexico and widely disliked.

His positions have unified an otherwise fractious country, where corruption, a fledgling rule of law and economic struggles have alienated many from political engagement. As Mr. Trump’s promises have begun to materialize into action, the public discourse is changing.

“This wall, instead of creating good borders, will inevitably and undoubtedly create more security problems for the U.S.,” said Roberto Ortiz, 72, who sells GPS navigation units for drivers. “He will no longer enjoy Mexico’s cooperation and help with these issues.”

Still, despite the outrage, there was a recognition that the action was more political than substantive, like the wall itself. A meaningful stretch of the United States border is already lined with a wall, and illegal immigration persists.

Most experts do not think a wall will make any difference.

“Symbolic gestures are not going to change the fact that we’re neighbors and that our countries will affect each other in perpetuity,” said Carlos Pascual, a former United States ambassador to Mexico. “We have no choice but to keep working for better solutions.”

Others took the wall threat with a grain of salt, figuring Mexican creativity, or ingenuity, would render it useless anyway.

“This is just politics, it won’t upend life in Mexico,” said Ariel Najum, 39, who runs a family business. “You know how Mexicans are: If they go high, we go underneath, with tunnels.”

Paulina Villegas contributed reporting.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/...S5I?li=BBnb7Kz

“This is just politics, it won’t upend life in Mexico,” said Ariel Najum, 39, who runs a family business. “You know how Mexicans are: If they go high, we go underneath, with tunnels.”


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We have land mines...go right ahead. Call us on our bluff.

If Mexico doesn't respect our sovereign right to build a wall to keep their illegal aliens, criminal enterprises and drugs out of our country, then there is no foundation for talks with Mexico about NAFTA anyway, leaving US the simple option of US withdrawal from NAFTA. Most of US despise NAFTA. There's been no good from it come to the United States.

If they cancel the meeting, then cancel NAFTA and lets get on down the road with fixing our country, our way. The world needs to recognize, the Americans are back. We're in charge of our country again. And your worst nightmare is 250 million pissed-off Americans. We're sick of your whining, begging, cheating, mooching, protesting and taking advantage of US because of weak, bribed traitors at our helm.

It's a whole New Day in America.

Trump Train Moving On.

Mexico is in talks with doing business with China, like "I'll show you gringos" LOL

Great "build a bridge" to China...you can funnel all your illegals, drugs, gangs, diseases and terrorists to China. See how well that goes over. They do not want your people or problems either.

http://www.theodoresworld.net/pics/0...shomemage3.jpg

ROFL!! Yeah, they can tunnel their way to China. Hilarious, Beezer!!!

You know, the Japanese loved tunnels during WWII. Do the Mexicans not know enough about the Americans to know how we took Iwo Jima? They need to read up.

Vicente Fox is beside himself again, using foul language and repeating his ridiculous statement that Mexico will not pay for the wall. He can keep saying it but it has zero influence on what we can do with remittances and monies we give to the nation.

If The President of Mexico cancels his trip because he thinks he can play hard ball with President Trump, it will only make negotiations more difficult for his nation and people. This just proves how desperate they are for the billions in remittances and scared to have millions of their citizens return. They may see the riots and demonstrations over there that American citizens have been made to watch and endure for years.

Mexico and elsewhere send their poor, illiterate, unskilled, criminal, and then they want to be paid for the damages. They need to make the positive changes now as their people return.

Jorge Ramos is now spewing his nonsense. Bemoaning ending "Catch and Release" with cries of are you going to deport children at the border.

Mexico is a criminal nation. We need to disengage with them. Let them go their own way to wherever.

"Jorge Ramos is now spewing his nonsense. Bemoaning ending "Catch and Release" with cries of are you going to deport children at the border."

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Maybe ole Jorge had better be bemoaning to the President of Mexico and Central America how they can "pat their little kids on the head and their behinds" and then send them off into the arms of human traffickers and making $$$ off it.

Really Jorge? Time to face the truth and the facts and stop this corrupt human trafficking ring facilitated by your homies.

http://media.giphy.com/media/HJTBvT7cTQqFq/giphy.gif

No, we're not going to deport children at the border, we're going to turn them around and tell them to run south until they can't see US any more, then we'll call Mexico and tell them they have some children at a certain location. Give them the latitude and longitude and let Mexico worry about their own children. They should be home or at school not traipsing through desert alone.

In any event, they're your problem, not ours.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lorrie

http://media.giphy.com/media/HJTBvT7cTQqFq/giphy.gif

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OMG!!!

It just came out on CNN Don Lemon Show, when he interviewed a CNN reporter in Mexico City who says Mexican President has NOT canceled the meeting with Trump next week, and never said anything about doing such a thing. New York Times was according to the CNN reporter in Mexico City not citing "officials" in the President's office, but some "Senators who wanted the Mexican President to cancel the meeting".

New York Times is really slipping. The New York Times used to be one of the most respected international newspapers in the world. It was the news Bible on foreign affairs. Today, the National Inquirer would be more reliable. What a shame to see what a few stupid corrupt people working at the New York Times can do, write and say to destroy their own once important institution of international news.

So for now, the meeting with Nieto is still on. His Finance Minister is already here in pre-meetings for the talks between Trump and Nieto. Hope it stays on and they have a great meeting solving all the problems we have with Mexico, which I think when ours are solved, Mexico wakes up to a new reality that may even help them become a better country with higher wages and less crime. Then they can produce for their own people and achieve their own better sustainability and higher quality of life that way.

Trump just tweeted a few minutes ago that "If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting."

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?...Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Mexico only wants to come here to screw us over, try to get more money out of us, and convince Trump not to build the Wall and keep their illegals.

Cut off ALL aid and money to Mexico and Central America...stop the extortion, the corruption and abuse of our money.

They are NOT our friend and they still flood our border with illegals, gangs, drugs, diseases and terrorists. They facilitate the LIES in their Churches aiding and abetting illegals telling them what to say. All the same SOB story!

NO DEAL MEXICO...we are done with you and your corruption. The gravy train is over!

I say we withdraw from NAFTA. Requires 6 months notice according to paragraph 2205 of the trade agreement. Give notice now, and in 6 months, it's over and the NAFTA Nightmare is over. Do it now and we're free of this strangle-hold on our country by the 4th of July.

Mexican president cancels Trump meeting in Washington

Enrique Peña Nieto calls off the meeting after Trump warned him it would be better to cancel the visit if Mexico won't pay for the wall.

By Louis Nelson
01/26/17 09:37 AM EST
Updated 01/26/17 12:04 PM EST

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday called off a meeting with President Donald Trump that had been scheduled for next week, after tensions rose between the two countries over Trump's executive actions on a border wall and a sweeping immigration crackdown.

“This morning we told the White House we won't attend next Tuesday's meeting with @POTUS,” Peña Nieto wrote on Twitter. “Mexico reiterates its will to work with the US to achieve agreements for both of us.”

Trump had said earlier on Thursday that if Peña Nieto is steadfast in his promise that his nation won't pay for a wall along America’s southern border, “then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting” between the two leaders.

“The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost,” Trump wrote on Twitter, breaking his message up into multiple posts. “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”

Trump kicked off the process of constructing his long-promised border wall on Wednesday, signing an executive order to begin fulfilling one of the very first campaign promises he made. The president promised throughout his campaign that Mexico would pay for a "great wall" on the U.S. border, but since winning the White House, he has begun suggesting that U.S. taxpayers would front the money for the wall for expediency's sake but will be reimbursed by the Mexican government.

Trump insisted in an interview that aired Wednesday on ABC News that Mexico will pay, albeit “perhaps a complicated form.” More broadly, Trump has railed against Mexico, suggesting that its leaders have taken advantage of the U.S. via the North American Free Trade Agreement, which the president has vowed to either renegotiate or back out of entirely.

Like her boss, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway said Thursday morning on NBC's "Today" that Mexico will pay for the wall "whether they pay for it straight-out, or it's reimbursed later on after congressional funding." But she also suggested that "the United States of America spends billions of dollars protecting other countries' borders. It's high time we spend some money protecting our own.”
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto: “Mexico offers and demands respect, like the completely sovereign nation that we are."

Beyond upsetting America's neighbors, a move by the Trump administration to back out of NAFTA entirely could have its own dramatic set of economic consequences. Such a decision could upset international supply chains that stretch across North America that have been developed in the 23 years since NAFTA was enacted. Those supply chains support some 14 million American jobs that depend on trade with Canada and Mexico.

In response to Trump’s executive orders, Peña Nieto released a video Wednesday night, reiterating what has been his unflinching stance, that “Mexico will not pay for a wall.”

Top Mexican government officials were already in Washington on Wednesday, hammering out plans for Peña Nieto to visit Washington next week, although Trump's executive orders only added to the pressure on Mexico's president to cancel that trip. In his Wednesday night video, Peña Nieto did not say whether he would cancel the meeting, only that he would confer with his officials already in Washington about what his next steps would be.

“I regret and reproach the decision of the United States to build a wall that for many years, far from uniting us, has divided us,” the Mexican president said. “Mexico does not believe in walls. I’ve said it many times before — Mexico will not pay for a wall.”

A U.S. diplomat familiar with Mexico warned earlier on Thursday that it is critical not to view the country solely through the lens of trade or immigration. Mexico is a vital partner on other fronts, including counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics.

"People need to understand, No. 1, for Mexicans broadly, just how offensive some of this is."

But despite how strained relations between the U.S. and Mexico have become under his administration, Trump insisted to ABC News that his proposal to reset trade policies between the two nations and clamp down on undocumented immigration will ultimately be to the benefit of both countries. Trump said Wednesday in a speech at the Department of Homeland Security that a tougher border will not just stop the northward flow of undocumented immigrants and drugs, but also the southward movement of guns into the hands of Mexico's drug cartels.

"You have to understand what I'm doing is good for the United States. It's also going to be good for Mexico," Trump told ABC News. "We want to have a very stable, very solid Mexico, even more solid than it is right now. And they need it also. Lots of things are coming across Mexico that they don't want. I think it's going to be a good thing for both countries. And I think the relationship will be better than ever before."

While Trump's campaign was built on a hardline stance on immigration, there is at least one related issue on which he has apparently softened: that of the so-called "dreamers," undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and have grown up as Americans in nearly every way but their citizenship. During the Republican primary, Trump campaigned on a pledge to deport every single undocumented immigrant from the U.S., but as he transitioned to the general election, Trump's position shifted to one focused on first removing those undocumented immigrants with criminal records beyond their illegal entry into the U.S.

President Donald Trump told ABC News’ David Muir in an excerpt of an interview to air later Wednesday that the planning for his border wall is 'starting immediately.'

Many of those "dreamers" registered with the federal government under a program instituted by President Barack Obama that offers renewable two-year work permits for individuals who pass a background check. Trump, who once committed to expelling all undocumented immigrants, has since backed away from that pledge and has not said what he intends to do with the Obama-era program.

"His priority is first and foremost people who are in this country that seek to do us harm. The president understands the magnitude of this problem," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at Wednesday's press briefing. "He is a family man. He understands. He has a huge heart. He understands the significance of this problem, but he is going to work through it with his team in a very humane way to make sure that he respects the situation that many of these children are in that were brought here."

The State Department, which has yet to hold its traditional daily press briefing under the Trump administration, referred a reporter inquiring about the impact of the president's tweets on the relationship with Mexico to Spicer.

Nahal Toosi contributed to this report.

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...warning-234211

LOL!! In a couple of Tweets, Trump establishes all the basis he needs to withdraw from NAFTA completely. Mexico won't pay for the wall because the drug cartels need an open border to function. Mexico won't "agree" as if we needed their agreement to block remittances by illegal aliens or tax remittances of legal immigrants, so it's clear the Mexican government also supports illegal immigration into the US. The trade deficit we have with Mexico is a matter of long-term historical record as the steady incredible flow of our manufacturing companies to Mexico caused the trade deficit in the first place.

Sooooo, there are no benefits to the US from NAFTA and never have been. If Mexico is unwilling to meet and discuss our issues, which Trump has baited, fished and caught live on Twitter, then there is no purpose to waste time on a "renegotiation of NAFTA." Therefore, NAFTA is a dead duck, and we should expect within the next couple of days an Executive Order withdrawing the United States from NAFTA. Trump may need to coordinate with Congress which is fine. Democrats have always said they oppose NAFTA, so it should be a huge vote in favor of Trump's decision. Most Republicans in the country have always opposed NAFTA, so in this climate with this President, this resolution or whatever is necessary should be a quick, simple deal.

And no it will not disrupt supply chains that Mexico tries to hang its pitiful sombrero on. Business continues as usual. The difference is the United States is now free to protect our own borders, control immigration, and impose taxes and fees where it is in our interest to do so. It also frees the federal and state governments from having to consider foreign bidders for government services. This is huge given the fact that we are going to be upgrading our military and infrastructure.

We need action, not talk. We've talked and talked and talked as our jobs disappear as our industries leave as the drugs and illegal aliens pour in and our money pours out. This is an excellent, intelligent long-overdue move by the President, but one that requires courage, guts, commitment, loyalty to our citizens, and well ... it's always needed Donald J Trump to do this for US, because no one else knew how or wanted to stop this travesty and the carnage it has caused in the United States.