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.

Nation’s second-largest school district targeted by Trump over secretive trans policy

Video: Hunter Biden Hits New Rock Bottom, Agrees to Insane Cage Match Against Don Jr., Eric Trump

BREAKING IMPEACHMENT NEWS: Hearings on Tim Walz, Keith Ellison Impeachment to Begin Next Week

Midwest nasty: ‘Hoosier nice’ gets swamped in Trump White House’s redistricting revenge tour against Indiana Republicans

Sanford bets he can withstand likely Trump campaign jabs

Progressives in Washington, California, and Hawaii want to squeeze the wealthy

Rep Randy Fine joins House Freedom Caucus: ‘Strongest group of conservative patriots in Congress’

Hormuz choke point persists as Iran halts oil traffic despite Trump ceasefire

DoorDash data offers snapshot of economy voters are feeling ahead of midterms

Putin issues a decree calling for a ceasefire in fighting for Orthodox Easter holiday

Artemis II nears end of historic mission with splashdown off California coast

Trump blasts Biden admin for releasing illegal immigrant now charged in fatal hammer attack on Florida mother

Iran peace talks give JD Vance an opening in 2028 race

Mahmoud Khalil loses appeal to dismiss deportation case

Coast Guard seizes over 4,500 pounds of cocaine worth $34M from suspected narco-terrorist vessel on Easter

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.