Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto canceled his upcoming meeting with President Trump following the signing of executive actions related to border security.
Pena Nieto announced via social media on Thursday that he had informed the White House he would not visit Washington in the coming days as scheduled.
“This morning we informed the White House that I will not attend the scheduled work meeting for next Tuesday with @POTUS,” he tweeted in Spanish.
Esta mañana hemos informado a la Casa Blanca que no asistiré a la reunión de trabajo programada para el próximo martes con el @POTUS.
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) January 26, 2017
Press secretary Sean Spicer told reports aboard Air Force One on Thursday that the White House would look to reschedule the meeting with Pena Nieto.
“We will look for a date to schedule something in the future,” Spicer said. “We will keep the lines of communication open.”
Earlier Thursday, Trump had suggested it would be better to scrap the meeting if Mexican leaders couldn’t agree to fund construction of wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
“If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting,” Trump tweeted.
The president had been slated to meet Pena Nieto to begin discussions about the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump has promised to renegotiate. Trump also said he would discuss immigration and border security with Pena Nieto.
But the Mexican leader reportedly bristled at Trump’s decision to expand the use of detention centers for immigrants caught entering the country illegally, put thousands of additional border patrol agents in place, and build a wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico. Trump ordered those changes, along with a separate push to step up immigration enforcement in major U.S. cities, through a pair of executive orders he signed Wednesday at the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters.
The policy moves were widely expected given how intensely Trump focused on immigration during his campaign, although Democrats and advocacy groups still reacted with criticism.
Trump has repeatedly insisted that Mexico will pay for the construction of the border wall. However, Mexican officials have said they have no intention of doing so.
For now, Trump has said the U.S. will spend money initially to get the project started, and then make Mexico pay in some way later on.
