Trump pleaded with Mexican leader: We’ll work on cost of wall
DONALD TRUMP pleaded with the Mexican president to stop telling the media that he would not pay for the border wall, according to a leaked transcript of their conversation.
Mr Trump, who at the time was just a week into his presidency, suggested that funding for the project could be “worked out” and downplayed the importance of Mexico paying for the wall.
In the same telephone call with Enrique Peña Nieto, Mr Trump called New Hampshire a “drug-infested den”, and erroneously said he won the state in last year’s election. Hillary Clinton in fact narrowly won New Hampshire.
The revelations came in a full transcript of an early phone call between Mr Trump and Mr Peña Nieto on Jan 27 leaked to the Washington Post. Also leaked was a transcript of Mr Trump’s conversation the following day with Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, which degenerated into a row over how many refugees the US would accept. Mr Trump ended up telling Mr Turnbull, a former businessman, that he had made “stupid deals in business” and finished the call by saying “I’ve had it”.
The president’s call with Mr Peña Nieto took place just before Theresa May arrived at the White House to visit him.
In the election, the vow to build a wall on the southern US border and “make Mexico pay for it” was a cornerstone pledge made by Mr Trump.
In the phone conversation, Mr Peña Nieto said he remained firmly against paying and it was a matter of “national dignity”. Mr Trump responded: “But you cannot say that to the press. 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.”
He said the funding “will work out in the formula somehow. It will come out in the wash, and that is OK. From an economic issue, it is the least important thing we were talking about, but psychologically, it means something so let us just say, ‘We will work it out’.”
He added: “The fact is we are both in a little bit of a political bind because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall – I have to.” Mr Trump told Mr Peña Nieto that he knew “how to build very inexpensively and it will be a better wall and it will look nice”.
He then offered US help in Mexico’s war against drugs. Mr Trump said: “You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need help with, and we are willing to help you.”
Mr Trump also suggested Mexican drugs flooding into the US had contributed to his election win, saying: “I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a drug-infested den.” Politicians in New Hampshire, including Republicans, condemned the remark.