The Donald Trump rally was held on July 5 in Memorial Auditorium at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, attracting a crowd of more than 2,000." />
Nicholas Faulkner
The Donald Trump rally was held on July 5 in Memorial Auditorium at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, attracting a crowd of more than 2,000.
Perhaps one of the most well known aspects of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is his promise to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, as he has stated numerous times over the past 14 months. The businessman-turned-presidential candidate has also made many racial slurs about Mexicans and has claimed “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best … They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Needless to say, Trump is an extremely unpopular man among Hispanics, so his visit to Mexico on Aug. 31 appeared inopportune and unfitting.
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, another relatively unpopular man among Hispanics, invited both Trump and his largest competitor, Hillary Clinton, to Mexico, but only Trump accepted the invitation. Perhaps Nieto believed that in speaking to Donald Trump, he could confront the Republican candidate about his harmful comments toward the Mexican people and his proposed plan to build a wall and force Mexico to pay for it. In doing this, he could have hoped to gain some respect back from his people and slightly raise his plummeting approval ratings. But after the meeting, the public and many politicians believed Nieto appeared submissive in the presence of the outspoken and arrogant Trump. At the least, Mexico found the entire debacle humiliating.
On the other hand, Trump perhaps hoped to gain more popularity among Hispanic voters with his political visit to Mexico. As many politicians before him, however, he used the opportunity simply to elevate his political status. Over the course of his campaign, much of the public has questioned Trump’s ability to speak and interact inoffensively with other world leaders, and his recent visit to Mexico did little to quiet those fears.
Unsurprisingly, the most common questions that arose after Trump’s visit to Mexico were concerning the discussions about the infamous wall and who would pay for it. In this area, Trump and Nieto have opposing explanations of what exactly was decided during their discussion. When asked about the wall, Trump shortly responded, “Who pays for the wall? We didn’t discuss [it].”
In contrast, Nieto tweeted, “At the start of the conversation with Donald Trump, I made it clear that Mexico will not pay for the wall.”
Trump has since said that both sides understood the other’s stance and therefore did not have to discuss payment for the wall, but both sides seemingly have refused to change their stances since the discussion.
As of now, Trump’s visit to Mexico did not truly accomplish much except providing an opportunity for the Republican candidate to appear presidential in a neighboring country that he has continuously mocked for over a year. As far as Nieto, inviting Trump to Mexico proved even more ruinous to his reputation as the country he ruled over saw the visit as nothing short of a fiasco.