Donald Trump Backs Down on Plan to Designate Mexican Cartels Terrorists

President Donald Trump decided Friday not to officially designate Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, deferring instead to Mexico.

“We will temporarily hold off this designation and step up our joint efforts to deal decisively with these vicious and ever-growing organizations!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The president said that although he was fully prepared to take the tough step against the cartels, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked him not to.

Trump said he liked and respected President Obrador, who has been working with him to help stop the flow of migrants crossing the Southern border of the United States.

Trump admin invokes 30-year dormant terror court as it seeks to deport Afghan woman tied to Election Day plot

Army conducts first overseas test of ‘Hammer of the Gods’ weapon-disrupting system

Grandmother’s missed pickup leads to grim discovery in church parking lot

Clinton, Obama-era Democratic heavyweights Penn and Emanuel rip NYC’s Mamdani over taxes, Israel, blast DSA

Revealed: The DNC Lost Almost $30k to Email Scammer – No Word Yet if the Employee Was DEI or the Scammer Was a Deposed Nigerian Prince

Breaking: US Launches Airstrikes in Iran, Saudi Arabia Joins in as Iran Is Pushed to ‘Tipping Point’

DOJ suffers setback in New Jersey voter roll lawsuit despite illegal registrants scandal

Watch: Sen. Josh Hawley Illustrates the Absurdity of Fauci’s Hearing Stunt with 3 Questions

Trump AG pick Blanche stalled as key Republicans refuse to budge

Trump Going to SCOTUS to Have Punitive $83 Million E. Jean Carroll Decision Reversed

Perverse History Surfaces in Murder-Suicide Deaths of Seemingly Storybook Family of 8 Who Burned in Own Home

Ted Cruz demands Fauci face jail time, labels him America’s ‘most damaging bureaucrat’

Watch: Bodycam Footage of Tony Romo’s Arrest and Sobriety Test Raises Questions

El-Sayed in the hot seat for another foreign rental property, nearly $300K in additional income

Trump taps veterans to fix illegal alien trucking problem plaguing US roadways

President Trump was expected to meet with his advisers on Friday to discuss the designation, which he has been previewing for months.

“All necessary work has been completed to declare Mexican Cartels terrorist organizations,” he confirmed on Friday. “Statutorily we are ready to do so.”

The cartel slaughter of nine American citizens in Mexico last month — six children and three women — prompted Trump to speed up the process.

U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr met with Obrador on Thursday to discuss the president’s proposal, which the Mexican president criticized as “interventionism” and a “flagrant violation of our sovereignty.” Obrador also cited President Obama’s failed gunrunning operation “Fast and Furious” as an example of how the United States only made violence worse in Mexico.

In March, Trump told Breitbart News that he was thinking “very seriously” about the idea.

“It’s psychological, but it’s also economic,” Trump said about the cartels. “As terrorists — as terrorist organizations, the answer is yes. They are.

The designation would allow law enforcement to act swiftly against the cartels as well as target their weaponry and financial resources. The federal government would also be allowed to prosecute friends and family members of the cartels supporting them in the United States, as well as organized gangs such as MS-13.