BORDER/IMMIGRATION/MEXICO/MIKE POMPEO/NAFTA/NATO/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and other top US officials traveled to Mexico Friday [7-13-18] for talks with the country’s president-elect, the first high-level meeting between the Trump administration and incoming leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador amid heightened tensions between the two neighbors and calls from Mexican leaders for the US to reunite families separated at the border…The talks covered a broad range of issues, including NAFTA negotiations, the opioid crisis, border security and immigration and trade negotiations. Pompeo’s trip, sandwiched between a NATO meeting in Brussels and a high-level summit Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, underscores the importance of a relationship that has been battered by almost 18 months of Trump’s anger about the slow pace of building a border wall between the two countries and illegal immigration. While the President has repeatedly aired his grievances about Mexico to score points with his base, officials beneath him have continued to work quietly to maintain one of the United States’ broadest trade, security and economic relationships.”
-Elise Labott, “Pompeo travels to Mexico to reset relations with president-elect,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 13, 2018 6:07 pm