Mexican President Nieto Says Drumpf Lied About Paying For Wall

[moonshaz]

[O.P.: I'm too tired to do Shakespearean insults tonight, so I've settled for changing the "T" name to "Drumpf" (except in the case of direct quotes).]

MEXICO CITY - Donald Drumpf told Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto on Wednesday he would build a border wall to keep illegal migrants out if he wins the U.S. presidency, but Pena Nieto held

Comments

[amw]

Thanks for setting this up.

I am usually not too interested in Trump news because it's like watching a two-bit shyster trying to cold read an audience full of bigots, but this Mexico trip was a curveball and actually had me interested to see how it'd all play out. Also, I'm a sucker for international intrigue.

I probably should not have been surprised that Trump changed his schtick from "defend America from criminal immigrants" to "defend Mexico from criminal immigrants". You know - wherever you are, just point the finger at the next country over. The irony is that when it comes to undocumented guns and drug money flooding into Mexico, America is exactly the next country over. I watched the whole thing on Reuters without any commentary, and my Spanish is very poor, so I had no context and didn't catch the nuances... but my first thoughts were that Trump came across as hopelessly out of his depth, and that instead of his usual dopey swagger, he just timidly regurgitated Peña Nieto's neoliberal talking points. I was hoping for at least a tiny dumpster fire, but alas it was not to be.

The interesting thing is reading stories in the Mexican press who felt that it was actually EPN who rolled over here. They have a point about how the lack of an apology from Trump for his previous statements was shameful, though hardly unsurprising after his demonstrated lack of empathy and remorse. Perhaps EPN should have pressed for it. Then there is the NAFTA thing. It seems when the Mexican press hear about wanting to keep manufacturing jobs in the "hemisphere" and that NAFTA should be "improved" it sounds like Mexico is making concessions to America. But if you view the same line through the lens of Trump wanting to repeal NAFTA and bring all manufacturing jobs back to America (oh and Mexicans are criminals and rapists anyway), it sounds like Trump is the one who made all the concessions. And people call Hillary a Rorschach test. Ugh.

Maybe the truth is that both Trump and EPN are embarrassments to their countries and they deserve each other.

But the real surprise-not-a-surprise happened later tonight, back in America, where Trump re-hardened the softening and pulled out the xenophobic and racist red meat that his base have been clamoring for. Like the morning never even happened. Like that clusterfuck of a townhall on Hannity never happened. I can't even with this guy. With most politicians I can at least understand in theory why people might vote for them, even if I don't share the values and principals that are guiding them to that decision. But Trump is such a transparent con man, and he is so lacking in any kind of compassion or humility... He doesn't even pretend to have moral fiber, it's just hate this, hate that, oh wait that's okay after all, now I'm hating this again. I honestly can't get how people go for it.