Donald Trump is once again coming under fire for making controversial comments about Mexico. During a recent phone call with the Mexican president, Trump allegedly threatened to send in the United States military.
Trump on Mexico
When Donald Trump first announced his campaign for president, he did so by referring to illegal immigrants from Mexico as "rapists" and "murderers." During the campaign, the former host of "The Apprentice" vowed to complete construction of a border wall, while promising to hold Mexico financially responsible. In recent days, Trump signed an executive order to jump start the building of the wall, which caused such backlash that a planned visit with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto was postponed.
As first reported by the Associated Press on February 1, Trump and Nieto had an interesting phone conversation, leading to controversial comments being made by the new president.
Trump tells Mexico: "I might send" U.S. military to take care of "bad hombres" https://t.co/BMRXQX7CZR pic.twitter.com/A7jz7Ix06T
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) February 2, 2017
According to the report by the Associated Press, Donald Trump and Enrique Pena Nieto spoke over the phone on Friday, with the billionaire real estate mogul threatening to send United States troops south of the border to Mexico to take out some "bad hombres." "You have a bunch of bad hombres down there," Trump allegedly told Nieto, while adding, "You aren't doing enough to stop them." "I think your military is scared.
Our military isn't," Trump went on to say, while noting, "I just might send them down to take care of it."
Double denial
In response to the story in the Associated Press, both the Donald Trump administration and the Mexican government are in denial. "The assertions that you make about said conversation do not correspond to the reality of it," the Mexican government's foreign relations department said in response to the report.
Mexico denies Trump threatened to send US troops to Mexico to deal with "bad hombres" https://t.co/OA3ppEhduJ pic.twitter.com/qR0PPWR9G8
— The Hill (@thehill) February 2, 2017
The offical line from the Mexican government is that the conversation between the two leaders was "constructive." The Hill went on to report that the White House has also denied the aforementioned report, though no offical statement or comment has been released. As of press time, it's unknown when both sides will get together for a face-to-face meeting.
