Trump chickens out again.

[rooster59]

Trump has 'friendly' call with Mexican leader but he demands change

By Roberta Rampton and Emily Stephenson

 

U.S. Donald Trump tells a White House news conference that he had a 'very good' call with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto after a meeting was scrapped over Trump's border wall.

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The presidents of the United States and Mexico spoke by phone on Friday after relations between the neighbouring countries frayed further over Donald Trump's border wall plan, with the U.S. leader calling the talk friendly but still demanding reworked trade and other ties.

The call between Trump and Enrique Pena Nieto came a day after the Mexican president scrapped a meeting set for next week at the White House over Trump's demand that Mexico pay for a multibillion-dollar wall along the lengthy southern U.S. border with Mexico. Mexico insists it will not pay for it.

Both countries issued statements saying Trump and Pena Nieto recognised their clear differences of opinion on the payment demand, and agreed to settle the matter as part of a broader discussion on all aspects of the two nations' relationship.

Financial markets took news of the call as a sign that the crisis in U.S-Mexican relations just days after Trump took office had eased. Mexico's peso <MXN=> rose on the news.

Mexico's government statement said Trump and Pena Nieto agreed not to talk publicly for now about payment for the wall. The White House did not immediately clarify whether Trump had agreed not to publicly discuss how the wall would be paid for.

During a joint news conference at the White House with visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May after the call, Trump did not mention the wall even as he spoke expansively about U.S. relations with Mexico.

"As you know, Mexico - with the United States - has out-negotiated us and beat us to a pulp through our past leaders. They've made us look foolish," Trump told the news conference.

"We have a trade deficit of $60 billion with Mexico. On top of that, the border is soft and weak, drugs are pouring in," added Trump, who during the U.S. presidential campaign accused Mexico of sending rapists and other criminals into the United States.

The United States had a $58.8 billion trade deficit with its southern neighbour in the 11 months ending last November.

Trump called his hourlong talk with Pena Nieto "very, very friendly," said he has a "very good relationship" with him and expressed "great respect for Mexico." Mexico and the White House both called the meeting productive and constructive.

Nevertheless, Trump showed no signs of backing off pledges to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada and slap high tariffs on American companies that have moved jobs south of the border.

Mexico sends 80 percent of its exports to the United States, and about half of Mexico's foreign direct investment over the past two decades has come from its northern neighbour.

'FAIR RELATIONSHIP'

"We are going to be working on a fair relationship and a new relationship" with Mexico, Trump told the news conference with May. "But the United States cannot continue to lose vast amounts of business, vast amounts of companies and millions and millions of people losing their jobs. That won't happen with me."

Trump said the United States will renegotiate trade deals and other aspects of America's relationship with Mexico, adding, "And in the end I think it will be good for both countries."

U.S. congressional leaders said on Thursday they would take up legislation to provide $12 billion to $15 billion to pay for the wall.

Trump, who has insisted that Mexico will reimburse the United States for the entire cost, signed a directive on Wednesday for the wall to proceed, part of a package of measures aimed at curbing illegal immigration.

The wall plan has angered Mexicans, and Trump's policies toward Mexico have put Pena Nieto on the defensive.

The Republican president views the wall, a major promise during his election campaign, as part of a package of measures to curb illegal immigration. Mexico has long insisted it will not heed Trump's demands to pay for the construction project.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer sent the Mexican peso falling when he told reporters that Trump wanted a 20 percent tax on Mexican imports to pay for the wall.

Spicer gave few details, but his comments resembled an existing idea, known as a border adjustment tax, that the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is considering as part of a broad tax overhaul.

Trump said in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network on Friday that there were options besides an import tax that could be "much more positive" for both countries.

The White House said Friday's call also covered "the importance of the friendship between the two nations, and the need for the two nations to work together to stop drug cartels, drug trafficking and illegal guns and arms sales." Mexico's government said the U.S. trade deficit also came up.

In Mexico City, billionaire Mexican businessman Carlos Slim said a united Mexico was ready to help the government negotiate with Trump and called on all political parties to support Pena Nieto in his discussions with the U.S. president.

In a rare news conference by the generally media-shy mogul, Slim said Mexico needed to negotiate from a position of strength, noting that Trump, who he called a "great negotiator," represented a major change in how politics will be conducted.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-01-28

[Somtamnication]

What a conversation that was! 

[craigt3365]

It's hard to argue with the basics of what Trump wants to do.  Stop drugs and illegals from crossing the border.  Officials in Mexico are massively corrupt and in business with the drug dealers and traffickers.  How it gets done is another matter.

[khwaibah]

Chump wants more TACO BELL's in Mexico.

[rijb]

[Cats4ever]

Interesting opinion  from Philip Roth

I of course am bigly opposed to such thoughts...............

No dictionary required

Licence with the language is, of course, permitted when the author is Philip Roth. This week, the 83-year-old engaged in an email exchange with the New Yorker, which asked him whether his 2004 novel, The Plot Against America, in which a fictional Charles Lindbergh assumes the presidency, had foreshadowed Trump. No, said Roth, and made the point that Lindbergh, for all his fascist sympathies, was a genuine hero, rather that someone like Trump, “ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognising subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of 77 words that is better called Jerkish than English”. No action from the dictionary required.

[oxo1947]

Mexico has refused to pay for Trumps wall because of the racist stereotypes his supporters promote......

.

......about Mexicans not paying for things.

 

[rijb]

5 minutes ago, Cats4ever said:

Interesting opinion  from Philip Roth

I of course am bigly opposed to such thoughts...............

No dictionary required

Licence with the language is, of course, permitted when the author is Philip Roth. This week, the 83-year-old engaged in an email exchange with the New Yorker, which asked him whether his 2004 novel, The Plot Against America, in which a fictional Charles Lindbergh assumes the presidency, had foreshadowed Trump. No, said Roth, and made the point that Lindbergh, for all his fascist sympathies, was a genuine hero, rather that someone like Trump, “ignorant of government, of history, of science, of philosophy, of art, incapable of expressing or recognising subtlety or nuance, destitute of all decency, and wielding a vocabulary of 77 words that is better called Jerkish than English”. No action from the dictionary required.

 

...and critical thinking.

[geriatrickid]

1 hour ago, craigt3365 said:

It's hard to argue with the basics of what Trump wants to do.  Stop drugs and illegals from crossing the border.  Officials in Mexico are massively corrupt and in business with the drug dealers and traffickers.  How it gets done is another matter.

Ummmm, there wouldn't be drugs pouring in if the US market was not full of customers. I appreciate that the drug cartels  run the border regions, but isn't it time that US nationals took responsibility for their own drug culture?  People in TVF cheered the bikers who supported Trump. They didn't stop to consider that many of these biker gangs, particularly the Hells Angels, are major drug tracffickers.

BTW, there are  29 states or so who export $1 billion worth of goods to Mexico. If there are retaliatory duties, I expect that  tens of thousands of US workers will find themselves out of job and the people who are waiting to be hired (and they will wait a long time) will see their cost of living increase to reflect the new duties. US consumers will not purchase washers and dryers that are $100-$500 more expensive etc.

And on top of that if Mexico is destabilized, the USA will have created a hostile angry neighbor on its border.

[opalred]

i traveled  the USA some years ago 

found most people on drugs

cut mexico off and there will be more killing each other for drugs

[mike324]

I think its stupid people are debating about a wall, the wall is just a big stick Trump is using as a negotiation tool. Trump thinks he is the best negotiator, lets see how far he will get with this wall.....so far the Mexicans are not falling for it

[Cats4ever]

3 hours ago, rijb said:

 

...and critical thinking.

Irony -

[elgordo38]

This is old news. Nieto said "See You Later Alligator"

[chilli42]

Anyone knows that a wall is useless, people are way to clever to be stopped by domething like this.  It won't stop the drugs and it won't stop the illegal immigration.  It's first of all a political statement ... a line in the sand for America and an insult to its neighbour. 

[farcanell]

6 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

Ummmm, there wouldn't be drugs pouring in if the US market was not full of customers. I appreciate that the drug cartels  run the border regions, but isn't it time that US nationals took responsibility for their own drug culture?  People in TVF cheered the bikers who supported Trump. They didn't stop to consider that many of these biker gangs, particularly the Hells Angels, are major drug tracffickers.

BTW, there are  29 states or so who export $1 billion worth of goods to Mexico. If there are retaliatory duties, I expect that  tens of thousands of US workers will find themselves out of job and the people who are waiting to be hired (and they will wait a long time) will see their cost of living increase to reflect the new duties. US consumers will not purchase washers and dryers that are $100-$500 more expensive etc.

And on top of that if Mexico is destabilized, the USA will have created a hostile angry neighbor on its border.

Don't worry... be happy... China's got plenty of cheap washing machines for y'all.

[Thakkar]

7 hours ago, chilli42 said:

Anyone knows that a wall is useless, people are way to clever to be stopped by domething like this.  It won't stop the drugs and it won't stop the illegal immigration.  It's first of all a political statement ... a line in the sand for America and an insult to its neighbour. 

Trump's m.o. Is Insult politics. He Came to political prominence by insulting a sitting president in the vilest, most racist manner. He started his campaign with insults against Mexicans. He won the Republican Primaries primarily with insults against his primary opponents. He won the Electoral college votes by insulting HRC ("crooked Hillary"), journalists, women, a gold star family, muslims, blacks and the very electoral system he was running in.

 

His presidenting will also be insult politics—why change a winning formula?

 

Till now, we could sit back and watch it all as performance art. But now the stakes are high. The s*#t, as they say, is real. Millions can be affected. May Dog help us all.

[ilostmypassword]

12 hours ago, geriatrickid said:

Ummmm, there wouldn't be drugs pouring in if the US market was not full of customers. I appreciate that the drug cartels  run the border regions, but isn't it time that US nationals took responsibility for their own drug culture?  People in TVF cheered the bikers who supported Trump. They didn't stop to consider that many of these biker gangs, particularly the Hells Angels, are major drug tracffickers.

BTW, there are  29 states or so who export $1 billion worth of goods to Mexico. If there are retaliatory duties, I expect that  tens of thousands of US workers will find themselves out of job and the people who are waiting to be hired (and they will wait a long time) will see their cost of living increase to reflect the new duties. US consumers will not purchase washers and dryers that are $100-$500 more expensive etc.

And on top of that if Mexico is destabilized, the USA will have created a hostile angry neighbor on its border.

Also, there are also other groups in cahoots with the drug cartels: members of the U.S. border patrol and local American law enforcement agents.

[geriatrickid]

I just hope the US Congress comes to its senses and common sense prevails.

Aint it odd that free trade advocates in the GOP are so quiet.

 

I hear the sound of political back stabbing knives being sharpened.