Mexico, stunned by Trump tweet, cancels trip by its president

MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s president says he’s informed the White House he has canceled a trip to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump amid tension over a border wall.

Trump had tweeted Thursday morning that if Mexico is unwilling to pay for a wall along the U.S. border, “then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.”

The developments come the day after Trump said he will jump-start construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall and cut federal grants for immigrant-protecting “sanctuary cities.”

Former foreign relations secretary Jorge Castaneda told local media “Pena Nieto has no other choice but to say ‘I’m not going.’ ”

Trump’s unusual, voluble and unpredictable style appeared to catch Mexico’s normally quiet and cautious diplomacy off guard.

Finance Secretary Jose Antonio Meade told Grupo Formula radio that “I think that, in general, diplomacy is not conducted via Twitter.”

“The foreign relations secretary is involved up there, having meetings up there, and we’ll have to see what comes out of that, what report they send to the president and what conclusions they arrive at from all that,” said Meade.