Mexican president Pena Nieto denies calling Trump to praise border policy

MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he had not recently spoken to Donald Trump on the phone, after the US leader boasted his counterpart had called him to praise his border policy.

Trump made the comments as he presented his new chief of staff, former Homeland Security secretary John Kelly, who is tasked with restoring order to a White House beset by scandal, infighting and legislative defeats.

“At Homeland, what he has done has been nothing short of miraculous,” Trump said of Kelly.

“As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they’re close to 80 per cent stoppage. And even the president of Mexico called me — they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”

Pena Nieto’s office rejected that account.

“President Enrique Pena Nieto has not recently communicated with President Donald Trump by phone,” it said in a statement.

It said the two leaders had last discussed migration issues when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Germany on July 7.

At the time, it said, Pena Nieto shared Mexican figures showing that 31 per cent fewer Mexicans had been deported from the US in the fi rst half of 2017 compared to the year before, and that 47 per cent fewer migrants had entered Mexico from Central and South America.

The G20 sit- down was the fi rst official meeting between the two presidents, whose relationship has been tense. — AFP