Report: In a 'humiliating' and 'threatening' tone, Trump lambasted Mexico's president during a phone call

During a phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on  Friday, US President Donald Trump disparaged Mexico and  threatened to use military force against the drug trade,  according to Dolia Estevez, a journalist based in Washington, DC.

In an interview with the Mexican news outlet  Aristegui Noticias, Estevez, who cited sources on both sides of  the call, said, "It was a very offensive conversation where Trump  humiliated Peña Nieto."

Estevez said that while both the White House and the Mexican  president have released information about the call, both sides  characterized it as a "friendly" conversation and neither disclosed  what was said.

Estevez said she "obtained confidential information"  corroborating the content of the discussion.

"I don't need the Mexicans. I don't need Mexico," Trump reportedly told the Mexican president. "We  are going to build the wall and you all are going to pay for it,  like it or not."

Trump hinted that the US would force Mexico to fund the wall with  a 10% tax on Mexican exports "and of 35% on those exports that  hurt Mexico the most," Estevez wrote in Proyecto Puente.

Before the call, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump was considering a tax on imports  from Mexico to pay for the wall.

                   Pena  Nieto and Trump.        REUTERS/Henry  Romero            

"He even complained of the bad role the [Mexican] army is playing  in the fight against narco trafficking," Estevez, who writes for Forbes and is close to the Mexican  journalist and anchorwoman Carmen Aristegui, said during an  interview with Aristegui's eponymous news  outlet.

Trump "even suggested to [Peña Nieto] that if they are incapable  of combatting [narco trafficking] he may have to send troops to  assume this task," she said.

The US president "said he would not permit the drugs coming from  Mexico to continue massacring our cities," Estevez added. She  said Trump went so far as to say, "I really didn't want to go to  Mexico last August," referring to Trump's visit to the Mexican capital last  year.

Peña Nieto was accompanied on the call by people from his  country's foreign ministry, while Trump was joined by "the famous son-in-law," likely meaning senior  adviser Jared Kushner, and chief strategist Steven Bannon.  Kushner is reportedly close to Mexican Foreign Minister  Luis Videgaray, and they were seen as the likely go-betweens for  the two governments.

"Before this unusual onslaught, Peña was not firm," Estevez said.  "He was stammering."

                   Mexico's  new foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, right, with Pena  Nieto.        REUTERS/Edgard  Garrido            

Despite this confrontation, the Mexican government still believes  in negotiating with the Trump administration, Estevez said.

She also reports that Videgaray met with US officials  on Tuesday in Tapachula, near the Mexico-Guatemala border.

 According to Estevez, the Mexican foreign minister met with  Craig Deare, a member of Trump's National  Security Council handling the Western Hemisphere; Adm. Kurt Tidd,  commander of US Southern Command; and Roberta Jacobson, the US  ambassador to Mexico. The Mexican Foreign Ministry has made no  mention of the encounter.

Estevez says the meeting was to address Mexican  cooperation in deterring the flow of Central American migrants  through Mexico to the US. However, neither US nor Mexican  officials contacted by Estevez would confirm the meeting.