--- title: Trump Had Trouble Getting the Mexican President on the Phone description: Trump had trouble getting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on the phone to discuss NAFTA while on live TV. canonical: https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-27T16:55:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T07:52:14.727Z og:title: President Trump Had Some Trouble Getting Ahold of Mexico’s President on Live TV og:description: "Enrique?" og:url: https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta041472b9002d56f/698938c722fb85088ee26892/trumpmexicopresident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: President Trump Announces Revised NAFTA Deal With Mexico og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Had Some Trouble Getting Ahold of Mexico’s President on Live TV twitter:description: "Enrique?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta041472b9002d56f/698938c722fb85088ee26892/trumpmexicopresident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Had Some Trouble Getting Ahold of Mexico’s President on Live TV > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=27d1424e-6417-44ad-96c7-1616be0d0b6c&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: U.S. and Mexico Tentatively Set to Replace NAFTA With New Deal [Watch (HLS stream): U.S. and Mexico Tentatively Set to Replace NAFTA With New Deal](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wnkGZSfx.m3u8) (2:05)  _Published 2018-08-27. Trump Announces Trade 'Understanding' with Mexico_ by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 27, 2018 4:55 PM UTC Trump Announces Trade 'Understanding' with Mexico by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 27, 2018 4:55 PM UTC Even the [President](http://time.com/5378173/trump-says-us-near-trade-agreement-with-mexico/) can experience phone issues at work. [Mexico’s](http://time.com/4473972/donald-trump-&/) President Enrique Peña Nieto joined President Donald Trump via speaker phone from the Oval Office regarding a preliminary deal to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Trump announced the U.S. had reached the preliminary agreement on trade that he heralded as “a big deal!” on Monday morning ahead of the call. But before he joined the call, Trump was left waiting for Nieto for a little less than a minute. It was the kind of moment you might expect to see in the hit comedy _The Office_. “Enrique?” he asked while on speakerphone. No answer. It may have been the Oval Office and an especially important phone call. But for people watching the moment live, it was oddly relatable. Suffice it to say it quickly lit up the internet. See reactions to the moment below. > [](https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1034104551555690496) > [](https://twitter.com/RiegerReport/status/1034104897766137856) > [](https://twitter.com/SteveKopack/status/1034106141771530240) > [](https://twitter.com/eliotnelson/status/1034104673572204545) > [](https://twitter.com/BPatrickNormal/status/1034108469836537857) > [](https://twitter.com/MRLiepis/status/1034108081930731525) > [](https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1034105790154588161) ## Transcript [00:00] It's a big day for trade. Big day for our country. A lot of [00:02] people thought we'd never get here. Because [00:06] we all negotiate tough. We do, so does Mexico. And [00:09] this is a tremendous thing. They [00:15] used to call it NAFTA. We're gonna call it the United [00:17] States Mexico Trade Agreement. And we'll get [00:21] rid of the name NAFTA. Has a bad connotation [00:24] because the United States was hurt very badly by [00:27] NAFTA for many years and now it's a really good deal [00:30] for both countries and we look very much forward to it [00:33] and I believe the President is on the phone. [00:39] Enrique [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [00:49] Yeah, you can hook them up. [ INAUDIBLE ] You tell me [00:53] when. How are you? [ INAUDIBLE ] It's [00:58] a big thing. A lot of people waiting. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [01:13] Hello? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You wanna put that on this [01:15] phone please? Hello? [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Be [01:22] helpful. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [01:31] President Trump Thank you. [ INAUDIBLE ] [01:38] President Trump, how are you? Good morning. Thank [01:41] you Enrique and congratulations that's really a fantastic [01:44] thing. We've all worked very had. Your brilliant [01:47] representatives are sitting right in front of me, and I [01:51] thought we would congratulate each other before it got [01:53] out. And I know we'll have a formal news conference in [01:57] the not too distant future. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] [02:02] [ FOREIGN ] Thank you very much, President Trump. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/"},"headline":"President Trump Had Some Trouble Getting Ahold of Mexico’s President on Live TV","datePublished":"2018-08-27T16:55:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T07:52:14.727Z","description":"Trump had trouble getting Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on the phone to discuss NAFTA while on live TV.","url":"https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta041472b9002d56f/698938c722fb85088ee26892/trumpmexicopresident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta041472b9002d56f/698938c722fb85088ee26892/trumpmexicopresident.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"President Trump Announces Revised NAFTA Deal With Mexico","caption":"President Trump Announces Revised NAFTA Deal With Mexico","creditText":"Win McNamee—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":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/","name":"President Trump Had Some Trouble Getting Ahold of Mexico’s President on Live TV"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"U.S. and Mexico Tentatively Set to Replace NAFTA With New Deal","description":"Trump Announces Trade 'Understanding' with Mexico","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/wnkGZSfx/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-08-27T16:47:42.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/wnkGZSfx.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/","duration":"PT2M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5379170/trump-pena-nieto-phone/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```