US President Donald Trump is about to speak after Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto informed the White House he has cancelled his trip to Washington.
The cancellation follows US President Donald Trump's threat to force Mexico to pay for a border wall.
Trump had earlier posted a tweet that appeared aimed at cancelling the planned January 31 meeting: "If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting."
of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.— Donald J.
Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 201
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Trump said on Wednesday he would start building a US-Mexico border wall and vowed to make Mexico pay for it. Mexico opposes the wall and has repeatedly said it won't pay for it.
Former Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Castaneda told local media: "Pena Nieto has no other choice but to say 'I'm not going'."
Trump's unusual, voluble and unpredictable style appeared to catch Mexico's normally quiet and cautious diplomacy off guard.
Finance Secretary Jose Antonio Meade told Grupo Formula radio: "I think that, in general, diplomacy is not conducted via Twitter."
"The Foreign Relations Secretary is involved up there, having meetings up there, and we'll have to see what comes out of that, what report they send to the President and what conclusions they arrive at from all that," said Meade.
What the US Government could do with $15 billion
If one believes the back-of-the-envelope estimates by Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump's border wall is going to cost between $12 billion and $15 billion. That's a lot of money, even though it's just a minute fraction of a $4 trillion federal budget. Here are a few examples of what the government could do with $15 billion:
Fund the Environmental Protection Agency for almost two years.
Buy about 150 top-of-the-line F-35 fighter jets.
Fund medical research at the National Institutes of Health for six months.
Pay for overseas military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for three months.
Finance the IRS for eight months.
Cover the government's interest costs on the national debt for about three weeks.
Provide food stamps to 45 million people for about two months.
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