Trump upbeat after conversation with Mexican President

January 28, 2017

Washington, Jan 28: US President Donald Trump said he had a “very good” telephonic conversation with his Mexican counterpart Enrique Peña Nieto amid a diplomatic spat over Washington's plans for a border wall. During a joint press conference with visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday, Trump confirmed that he and the Mexican president spoke for nearly an hour, Efe news reported. “It was a very, very friendly call,” Trump said. “We are going to be working on a fair relationship, a new relationship,” the US president said. “We are going to be renegotiating our trade deals.”

The conversation came a day after Peña Nieto cancelled a planned visit to Washington in response to Trump's signing an executive order to initiate his promised border wall and insisting again that Mexico would ultimately pay for the barrier. Peña Nieto's office issued a statement on Friday confirming the phone call and saying that the two presidents agreed to resolve their differences over the wall as part comprehensive discussions about all aspects of the bilateral relationship.

Trump and Peña Nieto also resolved to instruct their respective staffs not to make any further public comments about the issue of the wall, according to the Mexican government statement. On Wednesday, the US president signed several executive orders affecting immigration, including one that assigns federal funds for the construction of the border wall.

In an interview with ABC News later that day, Trump said that while the US government would pay the initial construction costs, Mexico would ultimately reimburse Washington. Peña Nieto has repeatedly insisted that Mexico will not foot the bill for the wall and did so again on Wednesday. In a series of tweets on Thursday, Trump said Mexico should pay for the wall because it had long benefited from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) at Americans' expense.

Citing the persistent US trade deficit with its southern neighbor, he said it would be better to cancel his January 31 meeting with Peña Nieto if Mexico refused to defray the cost of the wall. Within hours of Trump's tweets, Peña Nieto announced that he would not be travelling to Washington, though the US leader described the cancellation as a mutual decision.

“The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week,” Trump said Thursday during a gathering with congressional Republicans in Philadelphia. “Unless Mexico is going to treat the US fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless and I want to go a different route. We have no choice,” the president said.

Later Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that Trump intended to impose a 20 per cent tax on imports from Mexico to cover the cost of the wall. The tax, however, cannot be immediately levied because of NAFTA, the 1994 accord linking the US, Canada and Mexico that the president has repeatedly criticized as a destroyer of American jobs.

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In meeting with Zohran Mamdani, Trump repeats claim he stopped India-Pak war

Agencies

November 22,2025

New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has again claimed to have solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, repeating his assertion during a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office.

Mamdani flew to Washington DC for his first meeting with Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the meeting, which he described as “great.”

During remarks in the Oval Office, with Mamdani standing next to him, Trump repeated his claim that he solved the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

"I did eight peace deals of countries, including India and Pakistan,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump had said he threatened to put 350 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they did not end their conflict, repeating his claim that he solved the fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called him to say “we're not going to go to war.”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Mamdani emerged victorious in the closely-watched battle for New York City Mayor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months and defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and was officially endorsed by Trump just hours before the elections.

Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.

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