According to the Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and Economy Secretary Graciela Marquez, the roughly 400 invited guests included business leaders, Republican lawmakers and two top officials from Mexico.
The move comes after Trump called for a "war" on the cartels in early November when nine women and children from a Mormon community in northern Mexico were killed in a hail of gunfire. The victims were dual US-Mexican citizens.
Morales thanked Mexico for protecting him and vowed to come back to his country "stronger and more energetically."
Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old white man was in a stopped vehicle in a left turn lane when police arrived at the site of the carnage on Saturday, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
