After Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto canceled a meeting with Donald Trump last week, the pair engaged in a phone call–one in which President Trump reportedly threatened Peña Nieto. Sources on both side have emphatically said that Trump not only threatened Peña Nieto, but even humiliated him.
Peña Nieto’s cancellation of the meeting followed President Trump’s action to reopen conversation with the Mexican president over who would be paying for the wall and how, according to Raw Story . Obviously, as we have seen before, it appears that Mexico is not too keen about the idea of a wall. Wales On Craic reported on Thursday that Peña Nieto said, in response to Trump’s insistence on a wall, that they would just dig a tunnel –and that the United States would be paying the $324 billion needed for the wall, not Mexico.
“I said to the missis last night that I should build a tunnel instead [of a wall]. She said that it was a good idea so I got up out of bed to draw some designs. I was there with a blank piece of paper and pen. It took me a good few hours but I eventually came up with something perfect. It’s of cylindrical design and will go underground.”
So when Mexico’s president canceled the phone call, it should have come as no surprise to President Trump. Instead, he quickly called up Peña Nieto and treated him in a threatening and humiliating manner.
‘I don’t need the Mexicans’: Report claims Trump threatened to send troops to Mexico in call with Nieto https://t.co/q2XxrJshCt pic.twitter.com/HTS7kxAL4H
— Raw Story (@RawStory) February 1, 2017
Specifically, Trump took to addressing other issues that seem to have been weighing on his mind. In particular, he accused the president of doing a poor job in controlling the travel of narcotics across borders, Business Insider reported. Washington, D.C., journalist Dolia Estevez relayed Trump’s specific complaint.
“[President Trump] said he would not permit the drugs coming from Mexico to continue massacring our cities.”
According to Time , this issue of drugs was central to Trump’s point. In the end, what he was trying to make clear to Peña Nieto is that the wall is not just about stopping illegal immigrants, per se, but about stopping the illegal importation of drugs from Mexico. Therefore, in line with this stream of thought, if Mexico isn’t going to work harder on their end to prevent them coming in, then they should help pay for a wall. Or, as President Trump said to President Peña Nieto, he’ll just send troops to Mexico to stop the “bad hombres.”
“You have a bunch of bad hombres down there. You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.”
This is what the US-Mexico border looks like before Trump’s wall https://t.co/UyM2wE6ZyO pic.twitter.com/W2ensuW8zj
— CNN (@CNN) January 29, 2017
In another comment, President Trump even referenced his trip to the Mexican capital last year, saying that he “really didn’t want to go.”
The reason that this call was also likely insulting stems largely from the fact that neither presidents were alone on the call. Besides having people physically with them on both ends, President Peña Nieto was “ accompanied on the call ” by individuals from Mexico’s foreign ministry, while Trump had senior adviser (and son-in-law) Jared Kushner with him, Business Insider further noted.
Mexico’s president still stands firm in his declaration that they will not help pay for a wall. Will Trump stand by his threat to send troops?
The way Trump talks you’d think Mexico was our enemy rather than one of our most important & longest standing allies, which is what they are pic.twitter.com/SaTCWyplaH
— Jonathan Riley (@realJonRiley) January 31, 2017
[Featured Image by Joe Raedle/Getty Images]