[CTC] Report: Trump, Peña Nieto to meet next week in Washington

[Anthony Torres]

Now canceled




https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-testy-call-with-trump-over-border-wall-mexicos-president-shelves-plan-to-visit-white-house/2018/02/24/c7ffe9e8-199e-11e8-8b08-027a6ccb38eb_story.html?utm_term=.9a35fee1294f


Tentative plans for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to make his first
visit to the White House to meet with President Trump were scuttled this
week after a testy call between the two leaders ended in an impasse over
Trump’s promised border wall, according to U.S. and Mexican officials.

Peña Nieto was eyeing an official trip to Washington this month or in
March, but both countries agreed to call off the plan after Trump would not
agree to publicly affirm Mexico’s position that it would not fund
construction of a border wall that the Mexican people widely consider
offensive, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to
discuss a confidential conversation.

Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable
portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither
man would compromise his position.

One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials
described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump
believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his
crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.

Both accounts confirm it was Peña Nieto’s desire to avoid public
embarrassment — and Trump’s unwillingness to provide that assurance — that
proved to be the dealbreaker.

“I think in many ways the relationship today is more fluid,” Videgaray said
earlier this month in Mexico City alongside Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson. “It’s closer than it was with previous administrations, which
might be surprising to some people, but that’s a fact of life.”

Traditionally, U.S. presidents have prioritized visits with their Mexican
counterparts soon after taking office, considering the close ties between
the neighboring countries.

But in January 2017, just days into Trump’s presidency, Peña Nieto called
off a planned trip to meet Trump in Washington amid an escalating war of
words between the two leaders over Trump’s border wall proposal.

In a Jan. 28, 2017, phone call, a transcript of which was published last
year
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/politics/australia-mexico-transcripts/?utm_term=.8b33196f114e>
by
The Washington Post, Trump suggested to Peña Nieto that they both try to
gloss over their respective wall positions by saying “we will work it out”
whenever asked whether Mexico would pay for the wall.

“The fact is, we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I
have to have Mexico pay for the wall,” Trump told Peña Nieto. “I have to. I
have been talking about it for a two-year period. . . . If you are going to
say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to
meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.”

Since that call, Trump has not visited Mexico City and Peña Nieto has not
been to Washington, although the two presidents have spoken by phone and
met in person in July at the Group of 20 summit in Germany. The two also
met in summer 2016, when Trump traveled to Mexico City as a candidate.

Earlier this month, a delegation of Mexican officials led by Videgaray met
at the White House
<https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-26/>
with
senior adviser Jared Kushner — the president’s son-in-law, who is charged
among other things with managing
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jared-kushner-a-shadow-diplomat-pulls-the-strings-on-us-mexico-talks/2017/02/09/aed2cf80-ef0b-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html?utm_term=.cccfd5f4e6dc>
the
U.S.-Mexico relationship — national security adviser H.R. McMaster and
other Trump administration officials to work out the parameters for a Peña
Nieto visit, officials said.

*[Jared Kushner proves to be a shadow diplomat on U.S.-Mexico talks
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/jared-kushner-a-shadow-diplomat-pulls-the-strings-on-us-mexico-talks/2017/02/09/aed2cf80-ef0b-11e6-9973-c5efb7ccfb0d_story.html?utm_term=.cccfd5f4e6dc>]*

The Mexican officials left the Feb. 14 meeting believing they had an
agreement with the U.S. side that Trump would not embarrass Peña Nieto by
bringing up his desire for Mexico to fund the wall — a proposition Peña
Nieto’s government considers humiliating.

One Mexican official describing his country’s position said, “You cannot
talk about the bloody wall.” This official said Videgaray left Washington
believing Trump would not broach the wall during Peña Nieto’s visit.

Trump and Peña Nieto made plans to speak by phone Feb. 20, and, assuming
the call went well, their staffs would finalize an itinerary for the
Mexican president’s White House visit.

But the call did not go smoothly, according to officials from both
governments. Trump said he would not be bound by any such agreement and
could not commit himself to not talking about the wall.

“That was a dealbreaker for us,” the Mexican official said, adding that
Peña Nieto and his administration were concerned in particular about a
reporter asking a question about funding for the wall at a news conference
and Trump answering it.

Instead of announcing a date for a meeting in Washington, the statements
issued by both governments summarizing the call were vague and said only
that they had discussed their bilateral agenda on trade, security and
migration issues. The statements also said the two presidents exchanged
condolences for the high school gun massacre in Parkland, Fla., and the
military helicopter accident in Jamiltepec, Oaxaca.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whose department is
responsible for border issues, has canceled an upcoming visit to Mexico. A
Department of Homeland Security official denied Saturday that Nielsen’s
trip was scratched because of Trump and Peña Nieto’s disagreement, saying
the decision to “postpone” her Mexico trip was made a week before the two
presidents spoke.

U.S. officials said Trump and Peña Nieto agreed to have their staffs
continue talking and try to reach an agreement about the border wall and
other issues. A few hours after the two presidents spoke, officials said,
Kushner called Peña Nieto to help smooth things over.

U.S. officials said they anticipate that Peña Nieto may try again to visit
Washington, perhaps in the spring, and the Mexican official suggested that
the two presidents may get together in April at the Summit of the Americas
in Lima, Peru.

*[Mexicans see models of Trump’s ‘impenetrable’ wall, and they’re not
impressed
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/mexicans-see-models-of-trumps-impenetrable-wall-and-theyre-not-impressed/2017/10/16/4f54bdb8-ad22-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?utm_term=.81eb35d2e50b>]*

“Build the wall!” was a signature slogan of Trump’s campaign and has
continued to be one through his presidency, even though Congress has not
yet fully funded its construction. At his rallies, Trump would cry out,
“Who’s going to pay for the wall?” His crowds would shout their answer
back: “Mexico!”

Speaking Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in
Maryland, Trump told his fans, “Don’t worry, you’re getting the wall,”
adding that whenever he hears someone suggest that he does not really want
to build a wall, “the wall gets 10 feet higher.”

Trump’s statements are considered offensive and outright racist by many
Mexicans, who accuse the U.S. president of using their country as a
punching bag to motivate his most fervent supporters.

In private, Mexican officials bristle at Trump’s claims that their
government is passively allowing drugs and Central American migrants to
pass through en route to the United States.

The number of Central Americans detained and turned back by Mexican
authorities has at times exceeded the number caught by U.S. border agents,
but enforcement by the Peña Nieto government appears to have waned in
recent years.

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Still, there is an understanding in Mexico that Trump is playing to his
national interests, according to Larry Rubin, a businessman who for years
has been a leader among U.S. Republicans on Mexico.

“There’s a better understanding of where President Trump is coming from and
what his objective is and what his style is,” Rubin said. “Like in any
negotiations, there is always posturing or issues that countries don’t
agree with. But overall they have so many similarities.”
On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 11:22 AM Arthur Stamoulis <arthur at citizenstrade.org>
wrote:

>
> Politico Pro
>
> *Report: Trump, Peña Nieto to meet next week in Washington*
>
> By SABRINA RODRIGUEZ <https://www.politicopro.com/staff/sabrina-rodriguez>
> Feb 22, 2018 4:26 PM EST
>
> President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto are set to
> meet next week in Washington, D.C., to discuss ongoing issues in the
> U.S.-Mexico relationship, Mexican news magazine Proceso
> <http://www.proceso.com.mx/523253/la-proxima-semana-reunion-trump-pena-en-washington/amp>
>  reported.
>
> The bilateral summit will take place Feb. 27-28, according to the report.
> The meeting has not been confirmed by either the White House or the Mexican
> government.
>
> Peña Nieto’s reported visit falls in the middle of the seventh round of
> the NAFTA renegotiation, which is slated to begin on Sunday in Mexico City.
>
> The leaders met for the first time since Trump took office in July 2017,
> on the sidelines of the G-20 summit. Peña Nieto garnered widespread
> criticism in Mexico for failing to push back against Trump’s comments that
> Mexico “absolutely” would pay for a border wall.
>
> Earlier this week, in a phone call with Peña Nieto, Trump underscored his
> "commitment to expanding cooperation between the United States and Mexico
> on security, trade and immigration," according to the White House.
>
> Last week, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a meeting
> between Trump and Peña Nieto would take place soon. That statement was
> occasioned by Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray's visit
> <https://www.politicopro.com/trade/whiteboard/2018/02/trump-pena-nieto-to-meet-in-the-coming-weeks-633554> to
> Washington.
>
> The reported meeting also comes at a time when Peña Nieto's ruling party
> candidate continues to lag in early polls ahead of the Mexican presidential
> election in July. Peña Nieto’s favorability ratings reached an all-time low
> after he hosted then-candidate Trump in Mexico City in 2016.
>
>
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-- 
Anthony Vidal Torres
Associate Campaign Representative
Sierra Club, Responsible Trade Program
202-495-3027
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