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.

Santos says he’s ‘very grateful’ for Trump commutation, wants to pursue prison reform

Young Woman Dies in Freak Accident at Utah Concert After Strong Winds Send Debris Flying

Cops Plead with Young People to Stop Pranking Loved Ones with ‘Dangerous’ AI Pics Showing Homeless Men in Their Houses

Trump calls Colombia’s Petro ‘a drug leader,’ says US aid will end payments

Trump posts AI video of himself showering protesters with brown liquid on ‘No Kings’ Day

Shooting at Oklahoma State University residence hall leaves multiple victims

Afghanistan and Pakistan pledge to respect ceasefire after more than a week of deadly fighting

Thieves steal jewels of ‘inestimable value’ in seven-minute heist at Louvre

Israel strikes targets in Gaza after claiming Hamas violated ceasefire

Alert: Spanish Priest Facing Years in Prison for Comment That Offended Muslims

Inside the minds of older, left-wing women driving new voting bloc of ‘Resistance Grandmas’ opposing Trump

Tragic: St. Louis Boy Playing Video Games in His Room Killed by Stray Bullet After Neighborhood Thugs Get in Shootout

‘Dr. Antifa’ fled US after doxxing, but infamous handbook promotes tactic and violence against ‘Far Right’

FBI agents from ’93 WTC attack blast Mamdani for embracing radical imam

Dug-in lawmakers see Trump as antidote to shutdown gridlock

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.