Trump changes tone on Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and tweets he is 'GREAT GUY!'

A day after the Electoral College cemented his presidential victory, Donald Trump took to Twitter to compliment Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, a man he had previously blamed for a conspiracy against him. Slim met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort at the weekend, with the two reportedly sharing a cordial dinner.

Along with a fortune of around $50bn (£40.4m), Slim is the largest shareholder in the New York Times newspaper. Trump has previously made a point of this, accusing Slim of using the power of the paper to attack him.

Nor has Slim held back in his criticism of Trump. In June, the mogul dropped out of a joint project over Trump's comments about Mexicans. At the time, Slim's spokesperson said that Trump's comments had been "out of line" and called the now-president-elect "closed-minded".

Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he and Slim met, claiming that it was after Slim called him. In the tweet, Trump called Slim "the great businessman from Mexico" and said "he is a great guy" in capital letters.

The Washington Post suggested that Trump's meeting with Slim was part of a pattern of reconciliation with his campaign-trail enemies, naming former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney as another example.

Slim has also toned down his criticism of Trump, saying at a business forum that if Trump helps the US economy and creates more jobs, that could be good for Mexico.

Though the meeting between the two billionaires might not be as simply amicable as it seems on the surface, an anonymous source told the Washington Post that Trump "believes Carlos Slim was behind a lot of his problems" and that Saturday's dinner was in fact an attempt to "neutralise" the Mexican businessman.