Confusion and contradictions surround Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s meeting on Wednesday with the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto.
Trump asserted that his controversial plan to erect a USA-Mexico border wall was discussed, but the even more contentious topic of who would pay for it was not raised. He told reporters afterwards:
“We didn’t discuss payment of the wall. That’ll be for a later date.”
His campaign office added in a statement:
“Today was the first part of the discussion and a relationship builder between Mr. Trump and President Peña Nieto. It was not a negotiation, and that would have been inappropriate. It is unsurprising that they hold two different views on this issue, and we look forward to continuing the conversation.”
But that account is completely at odds with how Peña Nieto sees it. He tweeted immediately after the meeting:
“At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.”
However, it seemed inevitable that he would say something along those lines. Rated as Mexico’s least popular president for decades, with an approval rating languishing at around 23 percent, Peña Nieto faced a deluge of criticism at home for agreeing to the meeting in the first place.
The comments that followed the meeting were, if anything, even more scathing and scornful. Esteban Illades, editor of the influential Nexos magazine, wrote:
“I can’t recall a time in the last 50 years when a Mexican president was so thoroughly humiliated in his own home.”
Carlos Bravo Regidor, a professor at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), went even further, saying:
“This is more than a diplomatic blunder. This is a mistake of global proportions.”
This was the first time since his nomination that Trump has left the U.S., and his staff battled manfully to make him appear suitably presidential and diplomatic. Mike Pence, the vice-presidential nominee, stated:
“What the American people are seeing today is the kind of decisive president Donald J Trump will be. This meeting begins a relationship where we can talk about the issues we’ve got to resolve between the United States and Mexico, as well as the issues we have in common.”
Trump’s advisors had to perform a tricky balancing act here, for while they wanted to parade his presidential credentials, they also tried to deflect bad reviews by not allowing any U.S. reporters on the trip.
John Podesta, chair of the Clinton campaign, gleefully lampooned the expedition, saying:
“At the first opportunity to make good on his offensive campaign promises, Trump choked. What we saw today from a man who claims to be the ultimate ‘deal maker’ is that he doesn’t have the courage to advocate for his campaign promises when he’s not in front of a friendly crowd.”
Watch what Mexico’s former president Vicente Fox had to say about the visit. As you can imagine, he was not complimentary.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exJw7LN_4oc
Featured image: Screenshot via YouTube.
