Transcripts show Trump’s tough talk to leaders
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump made building a wall along the southern U.S. border and forcing Mexico to pay for it core pledges of his campaign.
But in his first White House call with Mexico’s president, Mr. Trump described his vow to charge Mexico as a growing political problem, pressuring the Mexican leader to stop saying publicly that his government would never pay.
“You cannot say that to the press,” Mr. Trump said repeatedly, according to a transcript of the Jan. 27 call obtained by The Washington Post. Mr. Trump made clear that he realized the funding would have to come from other sources but threatened to cut off contact if Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto continued to make defiant statements.
The funding “will work out in the formula somehow,” Mr. Trump said, adding later that “it will come out in the wash, and that is okay.” But “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 described the wall as “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.”
The heated exchange came during back-to-back days of calls that Mr. Trump held with foreign leaders a week after taking office. The Post has obtained transcripts of Mr. Trump’s talks with Mr. Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Transcripts of a president’s conversations with foreign leaders are rarely made public, and the disclosure of these may fuel Mr. Trump’s ire over unauthorized leaks. The Post did not say how it obtained them.
Produced by White House staff, the documents provide an unfiltered glimpse of Mr. Trump’s approach to the diplomatic aspect of his job, subjecting even a close neighbor and long-standing ally to streams of threats and invective as if aimed at U.S. adversaries.
The Jan. 28 call with Mr. Turnbull became particularly acrimonious. “I have had it,” Mr. Trump erupted after the two argued about an agreement on refugees. “I have been making these calls all day, and this is the most unpleasant call all day.”
Before ending the call, Mr. Trump noted that at least one of his conversations that day had gone far more smoothly. “Putin was a pleasant call,” Mr. Trump said, referring to
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Russian President Vladimir Putin. “This is ridiculous.”
The White House declined to comment.
An official familiar with both conversations, who refused to speak on the record because the president’s calls have not been declassified, said, “The president is a tough negotiator who is always looking to make the best possible deals for the American people. The United States has many vital interests at stake with Mexico, including stopping the flow of illegal immigration, ending drug cartels’ reach into our communities, increasing border security, renegotiating NAFTA and reducing a massive trade deficit. In every conversation the president has with foreign leaders, he is direct and forceful in his determination to put America and Americans first.”
The official noted that Mr. Trump has since met both the Australian and Mexican leaders in person and had productive conversations with them.
The transcripts were based on records kept by White House notetakers who monitored Mr. Trump’s calls.
Portions of Mr. Trump’s strained conversations with Mr. Turnbull and Mr. Peña Nieto were reported earlier this year. But the transcripts trace the entire course of those calls from greeting to confrontation to — in the case of Mr. Turnbull — abrupt conclusion.
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