Transcripts of Trump phone calls reveal he urged Mexican President to stop criticizing wall

August 3, 2017

Itunuoluwa

In emerging reports Thursday, The Washington Post claims it has transcripts of President Trump’s phone calls made to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, pressuring him to remain quiet about paying for the border wall in January.

The transcript with Peña Nieto was one of two phone call conversations that were revealed Thursday, on the call Trump boasted about his victory and pressured the president to stop talking about the border wall. The call happened January 27, just seven days after Trump assumed office.

The conversation was mainly focused on topical issues such as trade and immigration and then moved to the president’s campaign which had been centered on building a border wall that Mexico would pay for. The Mexican President Peña Nieto had insisted his country will not pay for the wall’s construction publicly, but Trump demanded he stops saying that.

“You cannot say that to the press,” Trump said. “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”.

Later that day, Trump had a phone conversation with Prime Minister of Australian Malcolm Turnbull, the conversation quickly went grew sour when Trump rejected an agreement to take in refugees. Trump grew more intense as the conversation went on till he couldn’t take it again and told the Prime Minister the call was the most frustrating.

Trump said, “I have been making these calls all day and this is the most unpleasant call all day, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin was a pleasant call. This is ridiculous”. He later ended the phone call abruptly.

Trump insisted on having his own way, he said, “You cannot say anymore that the United States is going to pay for the wall,” he said. “I am just going to say that we are working it out. Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important talk about”.

White House is yet to comment on the development.

Itunuoluwa

Tags: australia, Malcolm Turbbull, mexico, President Enrique Pena Nieto, President Trump, united states