--- description: President Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto agreed to not speak publicly about the payment for the wall. title: Trump, Peña Nieto Won't Speak About Border Wall Payment image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3afc5329fc0bc8fa/6988a4708e06012ea3467503/trump-nieto-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Foreign Policy](/tag/foreign-policy/) ## Foreign Policy Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Mexican Government: President Trump, Peña Nieto Won't Speak About Border Wall Payment by [Zeke Miller](/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 27, 2017 7:41 PM CUT  US presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto prepare to deliver a joint press conference in Mexico City on August 31, 2016\. Donald Trump was expected in Mexico Wednesday to meet its president, in a move aimed at showing that despite the Republican White House hopeful's hardline opposition to illegal immigration he is no close-minded xenophobe. Trump stunned the political establishment when he announced late Tuesday that he was making the surprise trip south of the border to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, a sharp Trump critic. / AFP / YURI CORTEZ US presidential candidate Donald Trump (R) and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto prepare to deliver a joint press conference in Mexico City on August 31, 2016\. Donald Trump was expected in Mexico Wednesday to meet its president, in a move aimed at showing that despite the Republican White House hopeful's hardline opposition to illegal immigration he is no close-minded xenophobe. Trump stunned the political establishment when he announced late Tuesday that he was making the surprise trip south of the border to meet with President Enrique Pena Nieto, a sharp Trump critic. / AFP / YURI CORTEZYURI CORTEZ—AFP/Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 27, 2017 7:41 PM CUT One day after [calling off their planned summit](http://time.com/4650459/mexico-president-enrique-pena-nieto-donald-trump-meeting-cancel/ "undefined") at the White House, President Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto spoke by phone for more than an hour Friday morning, agreeing to not speak publicly about the payment for the wall, the Mexican government said. The call comes after a tense several days in which Peña Nieto [sent a blistering statement](http://time.com/4545724/mexico-president-screw-joder-enrique-pena-nieto/ "undefined") about Trump’s plan to build the border wall and to try to force Mexico to pay for it, and after the White House publicly floated and then retracted a proposal to institute a [20 percent tax on Mexican imports](http://time.com/4650732/donald-trump-mexico-border-wall-pay/ "undefined"). “The two had a productive and constructive call regarding the bilateral relationship between the two countries, the current trade deficit the United States has with Mexico, the importance of the friendship between the two nations, and the need for the two nations to work together to stop drug cartels, drug trafficking and illegal guns and arms sales,” the two governments said in a “joint statement” released after the call. But the version of the “joint statement” released by the Trump White House did not include sentence about the agreement to remain silent on payments for the wall. A White House official did not immediately comment on the discrepancy. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4652212/donald-trump-pena-nieto-border-wall-payment-call/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4652212/donald-trump-pena-nieto-border-wall-payment-call/"},"headline":"Mexican Government: President Trump, Peña Nieto Won't Speak About Border Wall Payment","datePublished":"2017-01-27T19:41:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:00:07.155Z","description":"President Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto agreed to not speak publicly about the payment for the wall.","url":"https://time.com/4652212/donald-trump-pena-nieto-border-wall-payment-call/","keywords":["Foreign Policy","White House","Enrique Pena Nieto","Mexico","Tax Reform","Donald Trump","Tariffs","border wall"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3afc5329fc0bc8fa/6988a4708e06012ea3467503/trump-nieto-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3afc5329fc0bc8fa/6988a4708e06012ea3467503/trump-nieto-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MEXICO-US-PENA NIETO-TRUMP","caption":"MEXICO-US-PENA NIETO-TRUMP","creditText":"YURI CORTEZ—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/foreign-policy/","name":"Foreign Policy"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4652212/donald-trump-pena-nieto-border-wall-payment-call/","name":"Mexican Government: President Trump, Peña Nieto Won't Speak About Border Wall Payment"}}]}] ```