Enrique Peña Nieto’s Acceptance Of Donald Trump In Mexico Continues To Backfire As Popularity Plummets
When Donald Trump made his speech in which he famously included his “what the hell do you have to lose” statement to African-Americans to convince them to vote for him — around the idea that all of their own infrastructure was doomed, it was already built from the foundation of a campaign that doesn’t have anything to lose.
In a similar way, Mexican President Peña Nieto did the same thing when he extended an invitation to Donald Trump to come to Mexico earlier this week.
With a low favorability among Mexicans of 23-percent, he too didn’t have anything to lose.
TRUMP VISITS MEXICO, GETS SHUT DOWN, LIES ABOUT IT, AND GETS CALLED OUT BY HILLARY
Most Mexican-Americans, native Mexicans and other Hispanics who are offended by Donald Trump’s campaign, would not have thought that it would be Peña Nieto himself, publicly destroying his own credibility with such a gesture.
Repito lo que le dije personalmente, Sr. Trump: México jamás pagaría por un muro. https://t.co/IJNVe0XepY
— Enrique Peña Nieto (@EPN) September 1, 2016
But now Peña Nieto is somewhat confrontational with Donald Trump after the fact, by saying on Twitter more than once that Mexico was not going to pay for his fictional wall.
Everytime Donald Trump talks about building a wall, especially this late in the race, the sense should be that there isn’t going to be a wall and that it’s simply a metaphor for cracking down on border security.
MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS MAY PAY FOR TRUMP’S BORDER WALL [REPORT]
During the weekly segment this Friday of Shields and Brooks on the PBS NewsHour, David Brooks also said that he believes there was not going to be a wall.
Identity Politics Run Amok https://t.co/Fomm1mE5DC
— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) September 2, 2016
“Well you know, this isn’t exactly dog-whistle politics, it’s just whistle politics. If you look at the NBC/Wall Street Journal poll when they asked people, ‘what are your top issues you care about in this country?’ Well, economy comes up very high, national security comes up very high, even the deficit has come up reasonably high; only six percent list immigration as one of their top-three issues. It’s not a major issue. And the reason it’s worked for Trump is because he’s playing identity politics. He’s playing ‘us’ versus ‘them’ politics, which is basically native whites against foreigners. And so The Wall is not really a wall. I think most people know he’s not going to build a wall. And certainly Mexico is not going to pay for it. It’s a way to say ‘I’m for us’ against the encroachment of ‘them,’ and in times of economic stress, among people who feel economic stress; there’s unfortunate susceptibility to that kind of identity politics.”
As of this writing, we’re unable to confirm the poll David Brooks is citing.
With frequent public denouncements of Donald Trump and his message, at least based off of vocal declarations of not voting for Trump, it’s easy to see that those who still stand by Trump could believe he means what he says about the wall.
Which is interesting considering that Donald Trump was blatantly obvious and clear that he was condoning the killing of Hillary Clinton when he said that the Second Amendment people could “take care” of her during one of his speeches, but to his supporters it was actually a less threatening meaning and not what everyone said it was, when on the other hand, if he says he’s going to “build a wall,” he actually means just that.
But according to Venezuelan-based leftist media service TeleSUR, President Peña Nieto’s popularity is taking a dive because of his meeting with Donald Trump.
MEXICO STUDENT MASSACRE: PRESIDENT ENRIQUE PENA NIETO FACES PRESSURE TO RESIGN
The article and the video mentions a question and answer session which acted as his fourth State of the Union address, where he only took questions from actors in the audience with prepared questions, most of it which was spent defending his record.
Donald Trump’s presence caused a lot of backlash from the country, one Mexican historian was livid and made the comparison of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meeting with Hitler, a comparison which makes little sense unless it was Hitler traveling to Britain to meet him when it was the other way around.
MEXICAN PRESIDENT PENA NIETO ON TRUMP: ‘THAT’S HOW HITLER GOT IN’
It’s also been reported that the Mexican director of The Revenant and Birdman Alejandro G. Iñárritu published an op-ed with El País slamming Peña Nieto, calling his invite a betrayal and a great insult to the people of Mexico.
If Peña Nieto thought that inviting Donald Trump was a diplomatic gesture, in hindsight of his immigration speech which caused some Hispanic supporters to leave his campaign; it’s only backfired on him.
[Image by Dario Lopez-Mills/AP Images]
