Trump Doubles Down On Immigration Policies As Pena Nieto Backtracks After Voters Say He “Lacked Strength”

At least during the press conference yesterday it appeared as though the meeting been Trump and Pena Nieto was viewed by both parties to be cordial, productive and mutually beneficial.  Both candidates expressed their mutual admiration for each other and their respective countries and listed off a couple of their thoughts on how to improve the relationship going forward. 

But, almost immediately, Pena Nieto seemingly began to buckle under criticism from his own people and walk back comments made earlier at the press conference.  First came the following tweet shortly after the meeting where Pena Nieto claims that "At the beginning of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall."

 

Apparently Trump was not particularly swayed, saying that "Mexico will pay for the wall – 100%. They don't know it yet, but they're going to pay for it" at his speech last night in Arizona. 

Pena Nieto also took to the airwaves to calm the rising storm of people who disagreed with his decision to sit down with Donald Trump.  Per Reuters, Pena Nieto told one media outlet that Trump's policies could be a "huge threat to Mexico" and a threat that "must be confronted." 

"His policy stances could represent a huge threat to Mexico, and I am not prepared to keep my arms crossed and do nothing," Pena Nieto said. "That risk, that threat, must be confronted. I told him that is not the way to build a mutually beneficial relationship for both nations."

Meanwhile the "huge" Trump protests that were supposed to take place at Ángel de la Independencia seemingly fizzled with the following tweets suggesting that, despite the buzz, not that many people actually showed up. 

 

Of course, Vicente Fox took the opportunity to re-assert himself into the conversation by going on the air with Jorge Ramos to declare once again that he would not "pay for that fucking wall."  Fox also added in his conversation with Fusion, that Trump should "put his knees on the ground and pray to the Lady of Guadalupe first and then ask for forgiveness for the way he offended Mexicans, he offended you, Jorge Ramos, and he offended the migrants in the United States."  Well that seems highly unlikely to us but you never know unless you ask. 

 

And finally, Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, who has been fairly open about his disdain for the Republican nominee, also chimed in with a tweet attacking Pena Nieto, saying "What a poor, lukewarm and fearful response by [Nieto] before Trump.  Where is the indignation to Trump's insults?"

 

Meanwhile, the Washington Post pointed out that Trump seemingly benefited from the encounter while Pena Nieto "failed" due to the perception among the Mexican people that he "lacked strength." 

“He’s not going to convince anyone with his talk about building dialogue and bridges,” said Jose Antonio Crespo, a Mexico City political science professor. “If Trump wins, they’ll have to meet and work together, but for now, the annoyance and anger of the people about his speech prevails.”

 

“Trump benefited from this encounter,” he added. “The president failed, he lacked strength.”

According to the Washington Post, Pena Nieto's presidency has suffered of late with a recent poll putting his approval rating at 23%.  Once seen as a reformer, the president is now facing rising crime and a series of scandals.

Peña Nieto, once seen as a reformer who opened up Mexico’s oil sector to foreign investment, took on long-standing monopolies and proposed ambitious changes to the education system, has lost much of the momentum he had on taking office in late 2012. A recent poll in Mexico’s Reforma newspaper put his approval rating at 23 percent, the lowest in the two decades that the newspaper has been tracking presidential popularity.

 

The oil reform has yet to take off amid low global prices for petroleum. Mexico’s homicide rate declined early in his term but has risen again, jumping 16 percent in the first five months of this year over the same period last year.

 

And the president has been beset by scandals. One involved a favored government contractor who bought houses on behalf of Peña Nieto’s wife, who is a former TV star, and finance minister. Forty-three students from the state of Guerrero disappeared in 2014, and huge protests erupted when information emerged suggesting that they were captured and killed with the help of police.

 

Recently, Mexico’s human rights commission reported that 22 of 42 suspected drug cartel members killed at a ranch in Michoacan last year were allegedly executed by police and not killed in a gunfight as police had claimed. That contributed to the ousting of the head of the federal police this week.

Meanwhile Trump seemed to double down on his immigration policies last night in Arizona declaring that "anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation, that is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don’t have a country.”

via http://ift.tt/2bEVKFY Tyler Durden

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