Trump Call with Mexico: Urging Mexico's president to stop opposing border wall plan

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US President Donald Trump told his Mexican counterpart, Enrique Pena Nieto to stop opposing his border wall plan in public because of promises he had made during his campaign trail, according to a transcript revealed on Thursday by the Washington Post.

"You cannot say that to the press." Trump said in his first phone call with Pena Nieto on January 27, a week after he took office in response to Nieto's repeatedly objection to pay for the border wall.

"If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that," Trump added.

Partial view of the US-Mexico border wall painted by members of the Brotherhood Mural organization in Tijuana, Mexico on July 6, 2017. /AFP photo

The phone call reflects Trump's attempts to influence to foreign leaders through tough talk and charm as he just entered the world of diplomacy, said Reuters.

Though Trump pressured Pena Nieto on border wall payment during the call, he still praised Pena Nieto saying he hoped Mexico would change its constitution to allow Nieto to extend his term of office.

As one of the campaign promise, Trump vowed to build a wall in southern US to prevent illegal immigration from Mexico and promised to make Mexico pay for it. However, the Washington Post pointed out Trump seemed to acknowledge this promise is hollow based on the transcripts.

During this phone call, Trump even admitted that the wall is “the least important thing we are talking about, but politically this might be the most important.”

US President Donald Trump (C) and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (L) hold a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. /AFP Photo

The transcripts showed that Trump knew the border wall was vote-bait and was not impractical so he just did not want his counterpart Pena Nieto to criticize the wall plan openly. Experts interpreted.

The transcripts were based on records kept by White House note-takers who monitored Trump’s calls. Such “memorandum of conversations” are commonly circulated to White House staffers and senior policymakers.

However, the Washington Post obtained and posted the full transcripts of Trump's January 27's call with Nieto along with another call on January 28 with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

US President Donald Trump and Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull talk as they arrive for the family photo on the first day of the G20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, on July 7, 2017. /AFP Photo

When talking with Turnbull, Trump is more acrimonious. He strongly rejected an agreement reached by former President Barack Obama to take in refugees detained in Australia.

"I do not understand. This is going to kill me. I am the world’s greatest person that does not want to let people into the country," Trump told Turnbull and ended the phone call abruptly.

The White House declined to comment. The official only noted that Trump has since met both leaders in person with productive conversations.

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