President Trump said Monday that he spoke to Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and believed they would have a “very good” relationship.
Mr. Lopez Obrador, a left-leaning populist who easily won Mexico’s presidential election Sunday, will face off against Mr. Trump over trade and border security.
He’s a staunch critic of the U.S. president but also nicknamed “Mexico’s Trump” because of his outsider status and populous push to shake up Mexican politics.
Mr. Trump said they spoke by phone for about 30 minutes about trade, borders security and the North American Free Trade Agreement, the three-way trade deal that includes Canada and is being renegotiated at the insistence of the Trump administration.
“I think he’s going to try and help us with the border. We have unbelievably bad border laws, immigration laws, the weakest in the world, laughed at by everybody in the world,” Mr. Trump said.
He said Mexico’s “very strong” immigration laws could be used to help keep illegal immigrants away from the U.S. border.
“They can help us until we straighten out our immigration laws, which have been bad for many, many years — decades, and we’re going to have them taken care of,” the president said.
Mr. Trump has threatened to pull out of NAFTA if it can’t be reworked to his satisfaction. He said he spoke to Mr. Lopez Obrador about a possible bilateral U.S.-Mexico trade deal.
“I think the relationship will be a very good one,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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