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.

Black conservative reveals how GOP can lock down minority voters without Trump on ballot

Sweden’s right-wing government hoping nationalist-populist allies will hold back left-wing coalition

Wisconsin GOP governor candidate swims from sinking plane after emergency lake landing

Man accused in brutal motel stabbing sought as person of interest in 4 deaths, child attack

Florida woman accused of setting stranger on fire at gas station, leaving horrific burns

Knife-wielding man races at officer in packed seaside park before one deadly shot rings out: video

Uninvited woman enters Kamala Harris’ Malibu property prompting sheriff response: reports

Son of notorious Somali dictator reportedly living in Ohio decades after brutal regime’s collapse

The Fentanyl Crisis May Be Coming to an End But Kratom Is Ready to Take It’s Place

Video Puts US Military Power on Full Display, Shows Total Missile-Strike Destruction of Iran Tankers

Sick: At 9:11 PM on 25th Anniversary of 9/11, Man Runs on Field at Yankee Stadium With Palestinian Flag

Nuns Fight Back Against Law Forcing Them to Help Patients Kill Themselves

Outrageous Taxation Has Destroyed American Lives Going Back Decades

Canada Hits Back at Trump with Tariffs Affecting Key Midterm Battlegrounds

Trump’s DOT Could Cut American Electric Bills with Unconventional Plan to Lease Land for Power Lines

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.