FOREIGN POLICY/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “In the White House, President Trump was telling American chief executives that the days of being treated unfairly by Mexico — on trade, on immigration, on crime — were over.
‘You see what’s happening at the border: All of a sudden for the first time, we’re getting gang members out,’ Mr. Trump said. ‘And it’s a military operation.’
But in Mexico, his Homeland Security secretary, John F. Kelly, was saying the opposite, trying to tamp down fears of a military operation and assuring the public that American soldiers would not be used to police the border.
‘I repeat: There will be no use of military in this,’ Mr. Kelly said at a news conference on Thursday, appearing with Rex W. Tillerson, the secretary of state. ‘At least half of you try to get that right, because it continues to come up in your reporting.’ “
–Azam Ahmed, Gardiner Harris, and Ron Nixon, “As Kelly and Tillerson Visit Mexico, Their Reassurances Differ From Trump’s Stance,” The New York Times online, Feb. 23, 2017