Serious 我们的血肉築成我们新的长城！Ang Moh Trump's New Great Wall!

http://www.news.com.au/world/north-...e/news-story/37923df5c4f92be63cf89fe0d2f7178e

Donald Trump to Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto: ‘Pay up or don’t come’
JANUARY 27, 20176:28AM

Mexico president cancels U.S. visit after Trump wall comments

Staff writersReuters
MEXICAN President Enrique Peña Nieto has cancelled a meeting with US President Donald Trump that had been set for next week.

Mr Trump jumped on Twitter overnight to demand that his Mexican counterpart should cancel his upcoming visit to Washington if his country refuses to pay for a wall along the border.

“The US has a 60 billion dollar ($80 billion) trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers ... 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,” Mr Trump said on Twitter overnight.



Mr Pena Neito showed that he has also mastered Twitter, sending out a tweet to alert Mr Trump that he is not longer coming.

“This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the POTUS,” Mr Pena Nieto tweeted.

At a press conference after the Mexican President’s tweet, Mr Trump said that it would’ve been “fruitless” for Mr Nieto to come for talks if Mexico is unwilling to pay for the wall.

“The president of Mexico and myself have agreed to cancel our planned meeting scheduled for next week,” Mr Trump told Republican politicians at a retreat in Philadelphia.

“Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route. I have no choice.”

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says Congress is moving ahead with plans for the wall which would cost $US12 billion to $US15 billion ($16 billion to $20 billion).

Senator McConnell and House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan did not say how Congress would pay for the wall that Mr Trump has vowed to build.

“We anticipate a supplemental (budget) coming from the administration,” Mr Ryan said. “The point is we’re going to finance the Secure Fence Act.”

The tweet came after Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said his talks in Washington DC with a key trade adviser to Mr Trump over the future of bilateral commerce had shown the US side was receptive to Mexico’s point of view.

Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, left, and then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump shake hands. Picture: AP
Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, left, and then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump shake hands. Picture: APSource:AP
Mr Guajardo told Mexican television he had held long talks with Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday on how the two countries should seek to modernise the NAFTA trade agreement sensibly, and how to avoid obstacles to free trade.

The talks had shown the US side was receptive to what Mexico had to say, Mr Guajardo said.

STATE DEPARTMENT QUIT EN MASSE

It came as the entire senior management team of the US State department quit as new Secretary Rex Tillerson takes up his post.

The mass resignation is an embarrassment to Mr Trump, who nominated the ex oil tycoon to the key cabinet position.

Among the four top-level staff to leave is Patrick Kennedy, who was widely tipped to become Tillerson’s No. 2 at the department.

Former Exxon Mobil Corp chairman Rex Tillerson was granted to take over the Secretary of State role by the Senate foreign relations committee from Democrat John Kerry last week.

He still has to receive approval from the full Senate, but this is widely expected.

Former ExxonMobil executive Rex Tillerson is set to be Secretary of State. Picture: AFP
Former ExxonMobil executive Rex Tillerson is set to be Secretary of State. Picture: AFPSource:AFP
Senior State Department official Patrick Kennedy has quit now Rex Tillerson is set to be in charge. Picture: Getty
Senior State Department official Patrick Kennedy has quit now Rex Tillerson is set to be in charge. Picture: GettySource:Supplied
Kerry’s former chief of staff David Wade told the Washington Post: “It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate”.

Among those confirmed to be leaving are Gregory Starr, Assistant Secretary for State for Diplomatic Security, Michele Bond, Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs and Tom Countryman, the acting undersecretary for arms control and international security.

“These retirements are a big loss. They leave a void. These are very difficult people to replace”, Wade told the paper.

TRUMP ISSUES AUSTRALIA DAY MESSAGE

Mr Trump has sent an Australia Day message, declaring America has no better friend than Australia.

The message was delivered by acting Secretary of State Thomas Shannon Jr and comes just days after Trump killed America’s participation in the trans-Pacific Partnership with Australia and other allies and as he considers whether to make it harder for Australians and Kiwis to travel to the US.

“On behalf of President Trump and the American people, it is my honour to congratulate the people of Australia as you celebrate this Australia Day, 229 years after the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Harbour,” Shannon Jr said in a statement.

“It has been over 75 years since your commonwealth and the United States established diplomatic relations, but connections between America and Australia reach back to that fleet.” The Los Angeles Times revealed on Wednesday that Trump, in tightening up America’s borders, is considering ending the visa waiver program that allows Australians, New Zealanders and citizens of 36 other nations, including many close allies in Europe, to easily visit the US on 90-day tourist visas.

Amigos to Ang Moh Trump:

用我们的血泪築成你们新的长城？
我操你妈屁眼！

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...ip-in-border-wall-row-with-trump/3470470.html

US-Mexico tensions rise as meeting scrapped, wall tax looms

Posted 27 Jan 2017 02:16 Updated 27 Jan 2017 06:41

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MEXICO CITY: Tensions between Donald Trump and Mexico's Enrique Pena Nieto over the US leader's vow to make Mexico fund a new wall on the neighbours' border boiled over on Thursday (Jan 26) with the cancellation of talks in Washington set for next week.

Trump had been scheduled to receive Pena Nieto at the White House on Tuesday, for their first meeting since the inauguration. Instead, the Republican president is managing a foreign policy spat during his first week in office.

The escalating war of words over who would pay for the proposed border wall - a central pledge made by Trump during his successful presidential campaign - hit the breaking point on Thursday.

"If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," Trump said on Twitter in the morning.

Pena Nieto didn't take long to rise to the challenge.

"We informed the White House this morning that I will not attend the working meeting scheduled for next Tuesday" with Trump in Washington, the Mexican leader responded on Twitter.

"Mexico reiterates its willingness to work with the United States to reach agreements in both nations' interests."

Hours later, Trump told Republican lawmakers at a retreat in Philadelphia that the cancellation was by mutual agreement.

"Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route. I have no choice," he said.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer earlier told reporters that the "lines of communications" would remain open and Washington hoped to "schedule something in the future."

BIG PRICE TAG

The initial salvos between the two presidents came Wednesday, when Trump ordered officials to begin to "plan, design and construct a physical wall" along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometre) US-Mexico border.

Stemming immigration was a central plank of Trump's election campaign, but he has struggled to articulate how the wall will be paid for, beyond saying "Mexico will pay."

Republican leaders announced Thursday they would try to carve out US$12-15 billion worth of US taxpayers' money for the project.

Trump also ordered a survey of the border to be completed within 180 days.

Much of the land needed to build the wall would have to be seized from private citizens in Texas, the state of Texas or tribal authorities.

That could result in long court battles and hefty expropriation payments.

'MEXICO WILL NOT PAY FOR ANY WALL'

Trump's wall order had put Pena Nieto under fierce domestic pressure to hit back, and hit back the Mexican leader did in a video message to the nation late Wednesday.

"I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us," Pena Nieto said. "I have said it time and again: Mexico will not pay for any wall," he added.

Around two in three Mexicans have a favourable opinion of the United States, according to Pew surveys, but anti-American and anti-Trump sentiment is not uncommon.

Pena Nieto saw his own approval rating slide late last year, after he hosted Trump - then still a White House candidate - in Mexico City.

NAFTA A 'ONE-SIDED DEAL?

Trump also took to Twitter on Thursday to gripe about the trade gap between Mexico and the United States.

"The US has a US$60 billion trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost," he said.

That deficit for the trade in goods is slightly higher than the overall trade deficit - including services - of US$49 billion in 2015.

Trump has vowed to renegotiate the 23-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.

That renegotiation could provide one way for Trump to claim victory, through increased tariffs on Mexican goods or higher border transit costs.

But it could also risk retaliatory tariffs or blowback from US firms who export US$267 billion a year south of the border.

Another threat is to finance the wall by tapping into remittances that Mexican migrants send home, which last year amounted to US$25 billion.

Trump has also ordered officials to scour US government departments and agencies in search of "direct and indirect" aid or assistance to the Mexican government and report back within 30 days.

The United States is expected to provide about US$134 million worth of assistance to Mexico this year, with much of the spending wrapped up in the "Merida Initiative" to combat drug cartels.

- AFP/ec