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.

Battle over Daylight Saving Time erupts as push to stop changing clocks hits Senate wall

President Trump endorses Wyoming’s secretary of state for US House of Representatives

NYPD detective released from hospital after being stabbed multiple times in Bronx

Massachusetts felon pleads guilty after DOJ says he sold Russian plutonium to 67 customers

Nobu chef killed after teen driver crashes into parked car in California

Catfight! Insiders Say ‘The View’ Hosts Ticked at ABC After Whoopi’s Hiatus – ‘Every One of Them Wanted [It]’

Breaking: Televangelist Jim Bakker Dies at 86

Trump signs order waiving off-road rule for red-dyed diesel at Nebraska rally

Dennis Hastert, longest-serving Republican House Speaker and convicted child molester, dies at 84

Trump Says the New York Times Is Lying About His Ohio Rally, and That He Has Proof

Video: USNORTHCOM Repositioning Hundreds of Troops to Rio Grande After Servicemen Fired on from Mexico

Trump clears way for Fort Hood terrorist to face Army firing squad nearly 17 years after massacre

Luxury fashion designers found shot dead in California as family reportedly reveals troubling lead-up

Text Messages Between Cornell Jane Doe and Alleged Attacker Turn Case on Its Head

Biden DOJ officials warned their school board investigation resembled ‘Anti-MAGA Task Force’

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.