Donald Trump pleaded with the Mexican President to stop telling the media that he would not pay for the border wall, according to a leaked transcript of their conversation.
Trump, who at the time was just a week into his presidency, suggested that funding for the project could be "worked out" and downplayed the importance of Mexico paying for the wall. In the same call with Enrique Pena Nieto, Trump called New Hampshire a "drug-infested den", and erroneously said he won the state in last year's election. Hillary Clinton in fact narrowly won New Hampshire.
The revelations came in a full transcript of an early phone call between Trump and Pena Nieto on January 27 that was leaked to the Washington Post. Also leaked was a transcript of Trump's conversation the following day with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
In the election the vow to build a wall on the southern US border and "make Mexico pay for it" was a cornerstone pledge made by Trump.
On the phone, Pena Nieto says he remains firmly against paying and it is a matter of "national dignity".
