Mexican president cancels White House meeting in response to Trump’s tweets

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto called off his visit to Washington to meet with President Trump, after his tweets demanding Mexico pay for his border wall.

Even though Peña Nieto expressed disappointment over Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the construction of a massive border wall between the United States and Mexico, he still hadn’t planned on abandoning the scheduled talks with Trump, citing an importance for the neighboring nations to cooperate with one another.

However, the Washington Post reported Thursday that Peña Nieto’s mind was changed after reading two tweets President Trump fired off in the morning that said Peña Nieto shouldn’t bother visiting the White House if he’s refusing to pay for the wall.

The cancellation of the meeting between the two leaders marks an unprecedented increase in tensions between the U.S. and Mexico just six days into the Trump administration. President Peña Nieto said Trump’s proposal to build the wall and force Mexico to shoulder the cost has caused an explosion of outrage in Mexico, and says Mexican citizens are united in their opposition to the idea.

President Trump’s adamant stance on making Mexico pay for the border wall could be manifested in several ways. One way is through stopping or taxing remittances, or money transfers between the U.S. and Mexico, in which Mexicans working in the United States send money back home to their families. In 2016, there were approximately $25 billion in remittances sent from the U.S. to Mexico.

Another way is through the taxation of imports from Mexico, which is known as “border adjustment.” The Washington Post calculated that if Mexican imports were taxed at an additional 20 percent, the U.S. would raise roughly $13 billion per year through border adjustments.

Former Mexican president Vicente Fox Quesada has been vocal on Twitter in his opposition to Trump’s wall, using the hashtag #FuckingWall to voice his displeasure.