--- 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: 2026-04-13T07:54:32.291Z 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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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman Aug 27, 2018 4:55 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone via speakerphone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the Oval Office of the White House on August 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump announced that the United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement on trade. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) U.S. President Donald Trump speaks on the telephone via speakerphone with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto in the Oval Office of the White House on August 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. Trump announced that the United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement on trade. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)Win McNamee—Getty Images 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) ```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":"2026-04-13T07:54:32.291Z","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":"/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"}}]}] ```