Informed Comment Homepage

Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion

Header Right

  • Featured
  • US politics
  • Middle East
  • Environment
  • US Foreign Policy
  • Energy
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • About
  • Archives
  • Submissions

© 2025 Informed Comment

  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Donald Trump
Transcript: Trump threatened Mexican Pres. over Paying for Wall

Transcript: Trump threatened Mexican Pres. over Paying for Wall

contributors 08/04/2017

Tweet
Share
Reddit
Email

TeleSur. | – –

Trump told the Mexican leader that they were both in a bit of a political bind due to Trump’s campaign pledge to build a massive wall to prevent illegal immigration and have Mexico foot the bill, according to a transcript of a phone call shortly after Trump took office in January.

“They are going to say, ‘who is going to pay for the wall, Mr. President?’ to both of us, and we should both say, ‘we will work it out,'” Trump said. “It will work out in the formula somehow. As opposed to you saying, ‘we will not pay’ and me saying, ‘we will not pay,'” the U.S. president said.

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,” Trump warned.

While Trump has repeatedly insisted that Mexico would pay for the wall, he has provided few details about how that would be done.

According to transcripts obtained by the Post, the exchanges came in back-to-back calls that Trump had with Peña Nieto a week after taking office.

“Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important,” Trump told his counterpart.

Meanwhile, the Mexican government denied that Peña Nieto telephoned Trump to offer his congratulations for his hardline immigration and border policies.

The allegation that Peña Nieto phoned Trump emerged when the U.S. head of state claimed that he had received a congratulatory call from his Mexican counterpart about his policies, according to the Independent.

While swearing in John Kelly — a former four-star general and secretary of homeland security — as his new chief of staff, Trump commented, “At Homeland, what he has done has been nothing short of miraculous.”

Trump added, “As you know, the border was a tremendous problem and they’re close to 80 percent stoppage. And even the president of Mexico called me — they said their southern border, very few people are coming because they know they’re not going to get through our border, which is the ultimate compliment.”

However, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry released a statement denying that Peña Nieto had “recently spoken to President Donald Trump over the telephone.”

The official document said, according to the Associated Press, that the only other time the two men had met and conversed was at the G20 Summit.

“During the meeting, the two heads of state held last July 7 in Hamburg, Germany, the topic of migration was a topic of conversation approached by both. President Peña Nieto shared that repatriations of Mexican nationals from the United States had fallen 31 percent between January and June 2017 in comparison to the same time-frame in 2016,” the statement noted.

Via TeleSur

——

Related video added by Juan Cole:

The Young Turks: “LEAKED: Trump BEGGED Mexican President To Stop Talking About The Wall”

Filed Under: Donald Trump, Mexico, racism

Primary Sidebar

Support Independent Journalism

Click here to donate via PayPal.

Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at:

Juan Cole
P. O. Box 4218,
Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2548
USA
(Remember, make the checks out to “Juan Cole” or they can’t be cashed)

STAY INFORMED

Join our newsletter to have sharp analysis delivered to your inbox every day.
Warning! Social media will not reliably deliver Informed Comment to you. They are shadowbanning news sites, especially if "controversial."
To see new IC posts, please sign up for our email Newsletter.

Social Media

Bluesky | Instagram

Popular

  • Pope Leo XIV’s Link to Haiti is Part of a broader American Story of Race, Citizenship and Migration
  • Libyan Gov't Decries Fake News about Taking 1 mn. Palestinian Refugees: "Committed to the Palestinian Cause"
  • As Trump urges End to Gaza Fighting, Half a Million Face Starvation and Israel bombs more Hospitals
  • For all Trump's new Mideast Contracts, Two Big Deals Elude Him
  • That Sucking Sound you hear is Trump Flushing America down the Toilet

Gaza Yet Stands


Juan Cole's New Ebook at Amazon. Click Here to Buy
__________________________

Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires



Click here to Buy Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam


Click here to Buy The Rubaiyat.
Sign up for our newsletter

Informed Comment © 2025 All Rights Reserved