Despite President Trump’s repeated promises that Mexico would pay for a wall along the United States’ southern border, the president recognized early on that following through on that promise would be difficult, and urged Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to stop publicly opposing Trump’s statements, according to a report.

“You cannot say that to the press,” Trump told Pena Nieto in a Jan. 27 call, after the Mexican president reaffirmed that Mexico would not pay for a border wall. “The press is going to go with that, and I cannot live with that. You cannot say that to the press because I cannot negotiate under those circumstances.”