Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday scrapped plans to meet with President Donald Trump next week amid an ongoing dispute over funding for a border wall.
Peña Nieto recently reiterated Mexico’s refusal to pay for the wall. Trump tweeted furiously Thursday morning, suggesting that if Mexico was unwilling to pay for the wall, the scheduled meeting should be cancelled. The Mexican president agreed, apparently.
“The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”
Hours later, Peña Nieto announced on Twitter: “This morning we informed the White House that I will not attended the work meeting planned for next Tuesday with [President Trump].”
Building a wall along the southern border of the United States, and forcing Mexico to pay for it, was one of the most consistent policy proposals Trump espoused during the presidential campaign. Earlier this week, Trump advised federal agencies to identify all U.S. taxpayer funding sent to Mexico over the past five years.
Meanwhile, Republicans leaders in Congress announced Thursday that they will seek legislative approval for up to $15 billion in federal funding for construction of the border wall, which Trump has pledged to personally oversee.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the meeting with the Mexican president would be rescheduled, and promised to “keep the lines of communication open.”
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