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.

Joe Biden says cancer slowed him down, limiting memoir promotion tour

Trump says he was ‘only kidding’ about making Dana White press secretary

Deputy White House Chief of Staff Richard Walters exits job ahead of Stephen Miller takeover

Gun Rights Under Threat in Unlikely Places as Midterm Wipeout Hands Gun-Control Advocates Major Foothold

Collision between two trains in Egypt kills seven and injures more than 100

After GOP’s brutal midterms, ‘Chuck Norris of Florida politics’ tells party to ‘get up and fight’

No Star-Spangled Banner in Sight: First-Ever Palestinian State Lawmaker Immediately Celebrates Win with Palestinian Flag

AI Systems Indirectly Endangering US Troops, Turning Them Into Easy Targets for Enemy Drones

Dunleavy calls Alaska voting system ‘very confusing’ as razor-thin Senate race frozen in time

11th-hour power play targets incoming Dem governor after historic GOP defeat

Watch: Shaq Snubs Angel Reese When She Asks for Picture, Instead Hits Her with Same Insult Gesture She Uses on Other Players

Trump ‘holds all the cards’ in war against Iran’s regime, White House says

Stephen Colbert accused of crossing Harvard picket line before event with Yo-Yo Ma cut short by alarm

Bureaucrats Are Trying to ‘Subvert’ the Trump Administration from Within: Former Adviser

Blue Angels pilot removed from team for ‘failing to uphold’ standards, Navy says

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.