BORDER/FOREIGN POLICY/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “Plans for a meeting between President Donald Trump and Mexico’s Enrique Peña Nieto have been shelved for the second time in a year over disagreements about the funding of a border wall, Trump administration officials said.
The border wall has been a key issue for Mr. Trump since he began campaigning for the presidency but has strained relations between the two countries and enraged Mexicans.
Messrs. Trump and Peña Nieto had a ‘tense’ phone call lasting nearly an hour last Tuesday that culminated in what U.S. officials described as a mutual decision to put off a meeting at the White House.
Things got difficult as Mr. Trump was ‘exasperated’ at Mr. Peña Nieto’s insistence that the U.S. president steer clear of talking about his campaign pledge that Mexico would pay for construction of the border wall, senior U.S. and Mexican officials said…
After the call, Mr. Trump directed his senior adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to call Mr. Peña Nieto back to ‘discuss ways to keep moving forward on other issues,’ said another U.S. official.
The cancellation of the latest meeting was earlier reported by the Washington Post and Mexican weekly news magazine Proceso.”
-Santiago Perez and Peter Nicholas, “Mexico, U.S. Cancel Meeting After Trump Refuses to Avoid Border-Wall Talk,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 25, 2108 08:27pm