Trump says he asked Mexico to leave us militarily to combat cartels

President Trump confirmed on Sunday that he had pushed Mexico's president to let us troops into the country to help combat drug cartels, an idea that she had rejected.

Mr. Trump said reporters with him on board the Air Force One of Palm Beach, Florida, to Washington that it was “true” that he had made the move with President Claudia Sheinbaum. The proposal, which was reported for the first time by Wall Street Journal last week, came at the end of a long call between the two leaders on April 16, the journal said.

Ms. Sheinbaum has also confirmed that Mr. Trump made the suggestion and that she rejected him. Mexico and the United States can “work together”, she recalled that she told him, but “with them in their territory and us in our”.

Mr. Trump said that he proposed the idea because the cartels are “terrible people who killed people on the left and right and have been – they have had a fortune when selling drugs and destroying our people.”

He said: “If Mexico wanted help from the cartels, we would be honored to go into account and do it. I told her. It would be an honor to go in and do it. The cartels try to destroy our country. They are angry.”

He said: “The President of Mexico is a beautiful woman, but she is afraid of the cartels that she can't even think clearly.”

Mr. Trump had a better work relationship with Ms. Sheinbaum than with Canada's leaders. However, relationships with both neighboring countries were burdened by trade and immigration.