US President Donald Trump has reportedly fired Twitter messages to blast Mexico over payment for his proposed border wall while his top adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner was is discussion with Mexican officials about a planned visit by country’s president.
The insulting move by Trump was revealed Friday by the US-based daily Wall Street Journal, which added that his tweets swiftly ended Kushner’s negotiations with Mexican authorities at the White House
"The US has a 60 billion dollar 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," wrote the newly-sworn-in American president in a pair of tweets on January 26 just days after inviting his Mexican counterpart to Washington for a January 31 state visit.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto then cancelled his state visit shortly following the tweets, tweeting in response: "This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the POTUS."
The report came amid press accounts estimating that the cost of the border wall would exceed $21 billion, much higher than anticipated, prompting Trump to respond on Saturday in a series of tweets, insisting that the cost would be much lower after he gets involved in negotiations.
“I am reading that the great border WALL will cost more than the government originally thought, but I have not gotten involved in the … design or negotiations yet. When I do, just like with the F-35 Fighter Jet or the Air Force One Program, price will come WAY DOWN!” Trump said.
Kushner’s role in Bibi visit
The 36-year-old Kushner will reportedly play a key role in the upcoming Washington visit of the Israeli regime’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his talks with Trump on Middle East developments and US policies in the region.
In a Saturday article The New York Times credits Kushner – who is known to have maintained intimate ties to the Israeli regime as well as the person of Netanyahu – with the Israeli prime minister’s White House visit on February 15, underlining that Trump “has already adopted” many of Netanyahu’s “perspectives on the region.”
According to the report, Kushner – who “has no experience in government or international affairs” – will be “helping” Trump and Netanyahu to “craft a strategy to recruit Sunni Muslim countries that oppose Iran to help foster an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.”
The report further points out that Kushner “has been speaking with Arab leaders in recent weeks … on something of a crash course in diplomacy.”
It also states that Kushner’s up-close exposure to the Arab world “amounts to little more than trips to a handful of Persian Gulf countries and a star-studded jaunt to Jordan,” adding that “he is a mystery to most Middle Eastern officials.”
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