‘Plastered by the gringo’: Trump meeting a public relations disaster for Pea Nieto
Mexican president gets into Twitter tit-for-tat with Republican nominee over payment for border wall as citizens rail against acquiescent press conference
Enrique Pea Nieto on Thursday used Twitter to tell Donald Trump what many Mexicans wished he had told him in person on Wednesday.
I repeat what I said personally, Sr Trump, the Mexican president tweeted. Mexico will never pay for a wall.
The tweet was in response to one in which the Republican presidential candidate returned to his signature campaign promise on immigration and the US southern border, writing: Mexico will pay for the wall!
Pea Nieto had first tried to correct the record after his closed-door meeting with Trump in Mexico City the day before, saying he told Trump paying for the wall was a non-starter and the two men immediately moved on to other issues. Trump, who claimed payment for his proposed wall was not discussed, returned to the US to give a strikingly hardline speech on immigration policy.
For many Mexicans, Thursdays presidential tweet was too little, too late. They railed against an apparently acquiescent leader who had missed a golden opportunity to berate a bully. Pea Nieto, they said, should have told Trump publicly his border wall was a non-starter and responded to Trump calling Mexicans rapists and criminals with something stronger than labeling such insults misunderstandings.
He appeared submissive, docile and plastered by the gringo, said Gerardo Priego Tapa, a former member of Congress with the National Action Party (PAN). He was used and made to look ridiculous in front of those he governs.
Why Trump was invited and then treated so softly left pundits stupefied, especially since Pea Nieto, who is not known for verbal jousting or talking without scripts, missed such a good chance to improve his poor approval rating.
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The Mexican president entered the encounter with Trump as the countrys most unpopular leader since approval polling started in the mid-1990s. It was also the eve of his fourth informe state of the nation address an act of political theatre in which the president projects his power to the nation.
This year, Pea Nieto planned instead to talk with a town hall of young people, a move taken by many to show the administration has realised it has fallen out of touch with the public mood.
It seems as though no one in the government actually thought Trump would show up if invited, said Esteban Illades, editor of the public affairs magazine Nexos. My guess is that jaws dropped at Los Pinos when they not only realized that Trump was coming, but that he was showing up on the eve of the Mexican state of the union address.