Mexican President Pena Nieto On Trump: ‘That’s How Hitler Got In’

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said that Donald Trump’s rhetoric sounds like something from Hitler or Mussolini’s rise and that his country will not be paying for any wall. The president has been quiet about the leading GOP candidate’s comments toward Mexicans until now. Ironically, some academics say Nieto is already a violent dictator — a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Enrique Pena Nieto’s comments about Donald Trump appeared in the Excelsior newspaper on Monday according to NBC News. Nieto explained that Trump is offering easy solutions to difficult problems and painted a dire picture of the real estate mogul’s political rise as comparable to Hitler or Mussolini’s early reigns.

“There have been episodes in human history, unfortunately, where these expressions of this strident rhetoric have only led to very ominous situations in the history of humanity. That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in, they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis. And I think what (they) put forward ended up at what we know today from history, in global conflagration. We don’t want that happening anywhere in the world.”

Donald Trump began his presidential campaign with a speech that accused Mexican immigrants of being rapists and drug dealers. He received an immediate backlash, but dug in deeper. He then said he would build a wall stretching the entire length of the Mexican-U.S. border, and he would force Mexico to pay for its construction.

When asked if there was any scenario in which Pena Nieto would agree to pay for the wall, he said “no.”

“I have to say that I regret (the plan), and of course, I can’t agree with this American politician’s position.”

Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray agrees, saying the wall idea was “terrible.” Likewise, former Mexican Presidents Vicente Fox and Felipe Calderon have alluded to Donald Trump being like Hitler. Calderon was particularly critical, saying Trump is “sowing anti-American hatred around the world.”

Pena Nieta said, “it appears to me that (Trump’s comments) hurt the relationship we have sought with the United States.”

Vice President Joe Biden recently went to Mexico, where, standing next to Nieto, he said “I almost feel obliged to apologize” for comments from the GOP – a thinly veiled reference to Trump. Biden was there to discuss trade and other economic issues, but according to CNN, he went off-topic to he say he was “disturbed” by the rhetoric coming from the campaign trail.

Foreign Policy Magazine, on the other hand, says Enrique Pena Nieto is the real authoritarian tyrant, claiming that his administration is characterized by limited freedoms and endless violence. The report went on to say that the U.S. has been protecting the Mexican government’s repressive tactics, even lying in official reports claiming there are “no reports of political prisoners or detainees.”

Foreign Policy doesn’t believe Donald Trump’s call for isolation is the answer, but the author is equally critical of Hillary Clinton’s defense of the status quo, which has led to millions of Mexican immigrants fleeing over the border.

Enrique Pena Nieto insists that he is “absolutely respectful” of the U.S. political process, despite his apprehension of the current Republican front-runner, but whether American politicians should be skeptical of Mexico’s political process remains an issue to be debated in the race.

[Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images]