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.

Excavation set to begin on Trump administration’s 250-foot triumphal arch amid legal battle

GOP candidate gets busted trying to plant drugs on his political rival

With Gloria Steinem’s Death, Establishment Media Silences the Conservative Half of America

Court Forbids Mom to Take Daughter, 13, to Normal Christian Church – Used the Word ‘Cult’ in Official Docs

Pirro joins UK in mass crackdown on Chinese-linked scam centers

Trump Admin Announces Intent to Remove Tax-Exempt Status from Woke Private Colleges

Watch: JD Vance Pays Tribute to Karoline Leavitt in First White House Press Briefing Since Her Departure

Dramatic video shows SWAT vehicle ramming tractor during tense Oregon standoff

Smithsonian showdown intensifies as Trump administration issues a stark new warning

White House rips ‘activist’ Biden judge who upended Trump birthright citizenship order

Spanish prime minister promises to release all files on Ceuta invasion as thousands of illegal immigrants remain in enclave

Steel Across America tour lands at Fenway Park ahead of 25th anniversary of 9/11

Maria Bartiromo no longer with Fox News

Plane Carrying DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin Forced to Make Emergency Landing

Lindsay Clancy Effect? Child, 2, Pronounced Dead, Mother Hospitalized in ‘Domestic-Related Homicide’ in Sleepy Suburb

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.