Advertisement

Mexican president won't visit White House after Trump reportedly 'lost his temper' in call

 
In this Nov. 9, 2016 file photo, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto gives an address in response to the U.S. presidential election in Mexico City. A tentative plan for President Donald Trump to host his Mexican counterpart in Washington has been put on hold, the White House confirmed Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Trump and Pena Nieto have agreed that now is not the right time for Pena Nieto to make his first visit since Trump took office more than a year ago, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) CAET822
In this Nov. 9, 2016 file photo, Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto gives an address in response to the U.S. presidential election in Mexico City. A tentative plan for President Donald Trump to host his Mexican counterpart in Washington has been put on hold, the White House confirmed Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. Trump and Pena Nieto have agreed that now is not the right time for Pena Nieto to make his first visit since Trump took office more than a year ago, according to a White House official who insisted on anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File) CAET822
Published Feb. 25, 2018

Tentative plans for a trip by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to the White House have been scrapped after he and President Donald Trump spoke by phone and tangled once again over Trump's plans to erect a border wall, according to news reports.

The two leaders spoke for about 50 minutes Tuesday and devoted much of the conversation to the wall, the Washington Post reported. Citing unidentified sources, the Post said Trump once again insisted that Mexico pay for the wall. Peña Nieto once again said Mexico would not.

The Post said one Mexican official said Trump "lost his temper," while U.S. officials described him being more exasperated.

Mexican authorities had never confirmed that Peña Nieto was scheduled to travel this month to Washington, despite reports in the Mexican media that such a trip was planned.

Reports suggested that Peña Nieto's advisers had been closely considering both the potential benefits and pitfalls of such a meeting since the Mexican secretary of foreign relations, Luis Videgaray, returned from Washington this month with word that the Trump administration would be receptive to a visit.

But ultimately the "volatility" of Trump and the "lack of certainty about his commitments and actions" led Mexican officials to defer the meeting, columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio wrote Friday in the El Horizonte newspaper of Monterrey.

The major sticking point to a White House visit is the possibility that the Mexican president could end up looking bad or even being humiliated should the unpredictable Trump renew his insistence that Mexico pay for his plan to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Mexico's cautious approach suggests that Mexican officials were seeking to stage-manage the visit in such a way as to avoid awkward moments for Peña Nieto, who never gives news conferences and is most comfortable in heavily choreographed political events.

Any public perception emerging from a White House meeting that Trump bullied Peña Nieto — or that the Mexican president was submissive to Trump — could have substantial political blowback in Mexico during a presidential election year.