Mexico’s president says Trump won’t build border wall: ‘It doesn’t work’

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he does not believe former President Donald Trump will follow through on his promise to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, citing the two countries’ economic ties.

“Because we understood each other very well. We signed economic and commercial agreements that were win-win for both people, for the people of both countries. He knows that. So does President Biden. ” he said. said in an interview It was shown Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

When CBS reporter Sharyn Alfonsi asked López Obrador to respond to those who claim the wall “works,” López Obrador said the wall “doesn’t work,” and in a phone call, Trump He added that he had said the same thing to the president.

López Obrador said the two leaders agreed not to talk about the wall because “we’re not going to make an agreement,” and that the call was the only time the two sides discussed the wall.

“That was the only time I said to him, “Mr. President, I’m going to send you some videos of the tunnel that goes right under the U.S. Customs House from Tijuana to San Diego.” He was silent, but then he started laughing and said, “Mr. You can’t win,”’ López Obrador recalled.

In 2019, media reports emerged that Mexico’s president called the former president’s push for a border wall an internal matter and has since avoided getting involved in discussions about the proposal.

López Obrador, who became Mexico’s first leftist president in decades in 2020, disagrees with President Trump’s claim that the wall has stopped the spread of COVID-19, but he has publicly criticized that claim. He said he had no intention of confronting Trump.

President López Obrador insisted at the time that relations between the United States and his country were “very good” and stressed that the two countries were “not distant neighbors.”

The Mexican president also pushed back against a suggestion by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) that the United States could force Mexico to comply with U.S. immigration policies. CBS News reported.

“We are not a colony. We are not a foreign protectorate. And we have a very good relationship with the U.S. government, but not a subservient relationship,” he said.

He also said that President Biden largely recognizes Mexico’s sovereignty, saying, “Every time I talk to President Biden, the first thing he says is that our relationship has to be on equal footing.” insisted.

Mexico’s president has been unsparing in his criticism of Texas Governor Greg Abbott (Republican), accusing the state governor of “cheap political games” regarding the U.S. southern border.

Curbing the flow of immigrants into the United States has been a central focus of Mr. Abbott’s term as governor, and he has been at odds with the Biden administration for months over its handling of the situation.

Hill has reached out to the Trump campaign and Johnson and Abbott’s offices for further comment.