Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has withdrawn from a planned meeting next week with US President Donald Trump, following a disagreement on Twitter over who will pay for a proposed border wall.
“This morning I have informed the White House that I will not attend the work meeting scheduled for next Tuesday,” Peña Nieto said in a tweet. “Mexico reiterates its willingness to work with the US to reach agreements that favor both countries,” he added.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that the US government will look to schedule a meeting with Mexican officials on a future date. “We will keep the lines of communication open,” he said.
Trump and Peña Nieto were supposed to discuss US-Mexico relations in Washington, but the plans fell apart after both sides held firm to previous stances about paying for the border wall.
Trump signed executive orders on Wednesday to begin building a wall along the US-Mexico border, increase the border patrol force and add to the number of federal immigration officers.
Peña Nieto soon denounced Trump’s actions. “I regret and condemn the decision by the US to
continue construction of a wall that, far from uniting us, divides us,” he
said in a video posted on Twitter. “Mexico does not believe in walls. I
have said it over and over, Mexico will not pay for the wall.”
Trump took to Twitter on Thursday morning to post his response. “If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly
needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting,” he
said, adding that the US has a $60bn trade deficit with Mexico and calling the
North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) a “one-sided deal from the
beginning.”
Trump claimed during the
presidential campaign that Mexico would pay to build the border wall, but Peña
Nieto and Mexican officials repeatedly said no. Former President Vicente Fox
has frequently chimed in, tweeting on Thursday, “Donald, don’t be
self-indulgent. Mexico has spoken, we will never pay for the
#FuckingWall.”
Fox also posted a survey to his Twitter account, asking US residents if they would prefer to spend an estimated $25bn it could take to build the wall on healthcare, education, farming or infrastructure projects.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a leftist opposition leader and two-time runner-up in the presidential election, called on Peña Nieto to skip the meeting and present a motion against the wall in the UN.
Peña Nieto said in the video that he has ordered the foreign relations committee to
strengthen measures to protect Mexican citizens in the US. He added that he
will decide what to do next after he reviews a report on US-Mexico relations
from Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray, who has traveled to Washington to prepare
for the meeting.