Mexico’s President Once Again Points Out His Country Isn’t Paying For Trump’s Wall
Even if you’ve made your feelings known, it is necessary to repeat yourself to get the point across. We witnessed that on Sunday with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. During an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Nieto reiterated his previous promise that if Donald Trump were elected President of the United States, that Mexico will not pay for Trump’s proposed border wall.
Doing his best to be diplomatic, the Mexican leader and Three Amigos member noted that American political decisions are best left to its citizens to decide and that he’s “very respectful” of the democratic process. Whether it is Hillary Clinton or Trump who’s elected, Mexico will continue to sustain a positive relationship with ts neighbor.
However, in regards to comments made by the former reality TV star regarding the infamous wall, Nieto didn’t obfuscate, maintaining that there is “no way” his country will fund the project.
From the transcript, courtesy of Fareed Zakaria GPS:
ZAKARIA: So Donald Trump’s main policy proposal, the one he began his campaign with, is that he intends to build a wall between the United States and Mexico, along the border, and he intends to get Mexico to pay for it.
PEÑA NIETO: There is no way to have Mexico pay the — a wall, but any decisions inside United States is a decision of its government.
ZAKARIA: But under no circumstances would Mexico pay for that wall?
PEÑA NIETO: There is no way that Mexico can pay a wall like that.
This piggybacks on what Nieto said back in March, when he stated that there was “no scenario” where Mexico would pay the United States for a wall along its shared border. At that time, he also compared Trump’s rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. Since then, Nieto has softened his tone towards the real estate mogul, trying not to be overly confrontational towards someone that can potentially be POTUS in the near future.
However, it still doesn’t mean that he’s going to allow Trump’s conspiracy theory that the Mexican government is purposely sending rapists and criminal to the United States go unchallenged. When Zakaria brought that up to Nieto, the prez forcefully refuted it.
ZAKARIA: But he makes a very specific charge about your government. He says that you are sending the most unwanted people from Mexico — criminals, rapists, drug dealers — that the Mexican government is actually sending these people to the United States. Is that true?
PEÑA NIETO: That is not true. I categorially — categorically deny it. What is true is that both governments are working together, have a close coordination in order to battle these kind of guys. I mean, there are drug leaders which have a place to work, Mexico and United States. And both governments are giving the battle to them.
Those people who are living in the illegal position, those who are breaking the law, I believe that it is a cause for both governments to face, to deal and to work together in order to put these people in jail.
We can only guess how Trump will react to these comments by the Mexican president. I’m sure he’ll be extremely gracious, mature and sober in his response, as always.
Below is video of the interview, courtesy of CNN:
