Tag Archives: Enrique Pena Nieto

International news

Mexico president shelves visit to DC … who knew?

I am shaking my head, laughing out loud and slapping my hand against my forehead. All at once, man!

Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto, has called off a planned visit to Washington to meet with Donald John “Build That Wall” Trump Sr. Why do you suppose the Mexican head of state would do that?

Well, he and the president of the United States can’t seem to agree on POTUS’s ridiculous assertion that Mexico should pay for the cost of a wall along the border that separates the two long-standing allies.

Can you simply believe that? Of course, I am joking.

Trump has vowed to “put America first.” He has pledged to “make America great again.” He has said Mexico — a nation that is as sovereign as the United States — should foot the bill for a wall.

Pena Nieto, to no one’s surprise, has said, in effect, “Ain’t no way, Mr. President.”

So this is how our president intends to foster good relations with one of our most important international allies? By hectoring Mexico’s president to pay for a wall. What utter and absolute crap!

As the Texas Tribune has reported: The two presidents’ public posturing over the wall — Trump demands that Mexico pay for it; Peña Nieto insists that it will not — has harmed their personal relationship and jeopardized the alliance between their neighboring countries.

I am not terribly concerned about the presidents’ personal relationship. What is most concerning, though, is what their continued bickering will do to an alliance that has been among the strongest in the world.

From what I’ve observed it’s Donald Trump who keeps poisoning that bilateral relationship by insisting that Mexico do something that the United States cannot force it to do.

This is putting America first? This is how you “make America great again”?

I don’t think so.

International news, national news

Promises made often are promises broken

“I’ll build a big, beautiful wall … and Mexico is going to pay for it!”

I’m sure you remember when Donald John Trump Sr. made that proclamation. If you missed it the first, or even the second or third times, well, he kept saying all along the trail he followed right into the White House.

Mexico will foot the bill for a wall that the president of the United States wants to build. Check. Got it. Done deal.

Except that Mexico will do no such thing. Just ask them. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has made as clear as he possibly can make it: In no way, in no fashion, is Mexico going to spend a single peso to pay for the wall.

What does Trump do now? Why, he turns to us — to you and me. We’re going to pay for it, he declares with a bravado equal to what he displayed while making that foolish campaign-trail pledge.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders keeps muttering that tiresome — and mostly false — contention that Trump “got elected” on the promise to build the wall. Wrong, young lady! He got elected by declaring that Mexico was going to pay for it.

The wall now is being used as a piece of political bait. The president is threatening to shut down the government if Congress refuses his demand for money — coming from our pockets, remember — to erect that 2,000-mile wall. Congressional leaders, though, have been burned before by attempts to shut down the government. They’ve done so in the past and have paid a price politically for it.

Trump has no direct knowledge of the political pain that comes with making stupid promises that he cannot keep.

I am all for increased border security. If we’re going to do more to deter illegal immigrants, then invest in better surveillance monitoring techniques; hire more Border Patrol officers and put them on duty along our southern frontier. I get that those who enter the country illegally are, by definition, lawbreakers.

Here’s another notion: How about enacting some comprehensive immigration reform legislation that makes it easier for those who want to come here in search of opportunity to do so legally?

But to build a wall? And then force a neighboring sovereign state to pony up the cash to pay for it? That was never in play. To now force U.S. taxpayers to carry that burden has become just another broken campaign promise.

national news

Shut down the government … over a wall?

So much grist poured out of the president’s relentless and reckless rant in Phoenix …

Let’s take a nibble at this tidbit: Donald John Trump Sr. says he’s willing to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn’t approve money to pay for the wall to be built along our nation’s border with Mexico.

Yep, the guy who said this past summer that “I, alone” can solve the nation’s problems now is blackmailing congressional Democrats to provide money to build the wall. If they don’t, he said, the government shutdown is on their hands.

But wait!

Trump has vowed that Mexico is going to pay for the wall. Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto says “no … we won’t!” Trump reportedly has zero relationship with the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, who has declared there is “zero chance” the government is going to shut down; “We are not going to default,” said McConnell.

The president is insulting congressional Republicans as frequently as he insults Democrats. He is destroying — one insult at a time — any chance of getting anything done once Congress returns from its summer recess.

So now the guy who wants to “unify” the country, who declares it is time to “heal our divisions” is now threatening to shut down the federal government if Congress doesn’t do something he has promised never would happen.

I believe former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper — a serious and sober man — has it right. Donald Trump is unfit for the job to which he was elected.

International news

Another day, another lie from POTUS

Is the president of the United States unable to tell the truth — about anything?

This latest reported fib simply boggles my mind.

Donald J. Trump said he had received a phone call from Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto congratulating him on the success of U.S. efforts to curb illegal immigration across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump made the remark Monday as he was introducing former Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly as the new White House chief of staff.

The president said “even the president of Mexico called me” to offer a pat on the back.

Hold on! The Mexican foreign ministry said no such call went through. It said President Pena Nieto did not call the U.S. president. He did not offer an encouraging word in the context that Trump described. The men haven’t spoken for some time, the ministry said.

Who do you believe? The president of a friendly nation who, as near as I can tell, is not prone to fabricate events or conversations? Or do you believe Donald John Trump Sr., the guy who has shown an amazing penchant for prevarication for, oh, his entire professional and political life?

It might be that Trump wished for a phone call. Maybe he dreamt it came.

Whatever. On this one, I’m going to go with the guy on the other side of our border.

International news

‘Uh, no,’ majority leader says to wall-payment idea

“Uh, no.”

Two words, four letters altogether. That’s all it seemed to take for U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to put the kibosh on Donald Trump’s notion of getting another nation to pay for his “great, great wall” across our southern border.

Is that the end of it? Probably not.

McConnell’s terse response was to a question about whether Mexico would pay for the wall Trump wants to build. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has insisted vocally, categorically and with maximum emphasis that Mexico wouldn’t spend a peso to build the wall.

Here’s how NBCNews.com reported the senator’s response: “‘Do you believe that Mexico will pay for it [the border wall]?,’ Politico Playbook’s Jake Sherman asked. McConnell, R-Ky., flatly responded, ‘Uh, no.’

“McConnell said he believes that there are certain areas along the border that don’t need a border wall to secure the area.

“The border wall, which is estimated will cost $21.6 billion dollars to build, has spurred a lot of controversy in the United States and Mexico.”

A lot of controversy? Do you think?

The president of the United States might think he can get another sovereign country to do his bidding. Except that the term “sovereign” explains precisely why he cannot.

Imagine for just a moment the Canadians demanding the same thing of this country should a tide of “illegal immigrants” decide to flee the United States for points north.

Is that a preposterous notion? Hmmm. Not … entirely.

International news

Amazing fight developing between ‘friendly’ neighbors

So it has come down to this.

Donald J. Trump trumpets the need for “better relations” with Russia while dismissing reports from U.S. intelligence officials say that Russian hackers tried to interfere in our presidential election.

Meanwhile, the president is spoiling for an all-out trade war with the nation that shares our southern border — Mexico — over that country’s refusal to pay for a wall that Trump wants to build along that entire border.

Is the new president mad, stupid — or both?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/pushed-into-corner-mexican-president-punches-back/ar-AAmi9Az?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

He’s also — apparently — lying about who canceled the meeting next week between himself and Mexico’s president, Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump said it was a mutual decision; Pena Nieto insists he broke it off.

You know what? I’m inclined to believe President Pena Nieto, given our own president’s lengthy history of prevarication.

Trump insists that Mexico will pay for the wall, which congressional leaders estimate could cost as much as $15 billion to build. How? Trump said he might impose a stiff trade tariff on all good imported from Mexico. How might Mexico respond? Oh, with a tariff of its own on all goods that country imports from the United States.

Yep. It could produce a serious trade war between two ostensibly friendly nations.

What in the name of all that is holy is Donald Trump trying to do?

Furthermore, he talks about Mexico as having the upper hand here. He said Mexico has to treat the United States “fairly.” Uh, news flash, Mr. President: We’re the big dog on this block.

Someone has to explain to me how the president can look so blindly at the threat posed by Russian hackers while getting his hackles up over Mexico’s refusal to knuckle under to demands that well might impugn that country’s sovereignty.

International news

Build a wall? With our money, Mr. President? No thank you

Donald J. Trump is continuing his war of words with our nation’s southern neighbor.

The president says he still plans to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. He keeps making boasts about making Mexico pay for it because “they’re sending rapists, murderers and drug dealers” into the United States.

Of course, the president never has stipulated who he means by “they.” Let’s presume something for a moment: Trump is referring to the Mexican government.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/official-mexicos-president-considering-scrapping-us-trip/ar-AAmfCw3?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has responded on two fronts.

First, he is considering scrapping a planned visit to the United States to meet with the new president over his latest remarks about the wall.

Second, he’s continuing to insist that Mexico ain’t paying for the wall. Period. End of discussion.

According to The Associated Press: “Pena Nieto said he regrets and condemns the decision to build the wall, saying ‘I have said time and time again, Mexico will not pay for any wall.'”

So, the question must be posed to Donald Trump: What part of “no” doesn’t he understand?

Is he going to storm Mexico’s presidential palace at Los Pinos with weapons drawn and demand they pay? Is he going to launch an all-out trade war with one of this nation’s major trading partners?

Absent Mexico paying for the wall, then the final option is to saddle U.S. taxpayers with a monstrous bill to pay for a project that has little chance of succeeding at what Trump intends for it: which is to stop illegal immigration in its tracks.

He calls U.S. immigration policy the equivalent of “catch and release.”

If the Mexican president were to ask me, I’d say he ought to go to the meeting with Trump and tell him to his face: We won’t pay for it! Then he ought to tell his colleague: Mr. President, let’s work together to strengthen border security with more reasonable and achievable strategies; this build-a-wall notion is nutty and it will … not … work!

Perhaps he also can tell the U.S. president that he ought to apologize for demonizing the Mexican government — and Mexican citizens in general. That won’t happen, but President Pena Nieto ought to go on the record with the demand.

International news, national news, political news

Mexico outraged over Trump’s wall proposal

wall

Donald J. Trump’s impromptu visit to Mexico went well.

Don’t you think?

Me neither.

The Republican presidential nominee flew to Mexico City and met behind closed doors with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. They talked about illegal immigration, but apparently did not discuss that “big, beautiful wall” that Trump wants to extend along the countries’ border.

Now comes word from Mexico that the plan is “outrageous” and that Mexico isn’t going to pay a nickel for it, as Trump insists they should.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/mexico-calls-trump-wall-plan-outrageous-after-visit/ar-AAinv5Z?li=BBnb7Kz

So, where do we stand?

I believe we are precisely at the same point we were prior to Trump’s visit.

As near as I can figure, one sovereign country cannot dictate to another sovereign country how to spend its money. So, if the United States is going to demand that Mexico pay for construction of a wall, then Mexico is within its legal authority to refuse.

Here’s how Reuters reported an exchange between Trump and Pena Nieto: “On Twitter early on Thursday, Trump wrote, ‘Mexico will pay for the wall!’

“That prompted a Twitter reply from Pena Nieto later in the day: ‘I repeat what I told you personally Mr. Trump, Mexico would never pay for a wall.'”

This is Donald Trump’s view of international diplomacy.

“Yes, you will. No we won’t. Yes, you will, or else! I dare you to invoke the ‘or else.'”

Do you see how this is a ridiculous notion?

Trump’s build-a-wall theme played well to the Republican Party voter base that propelled him to the GOP nomination. He’s got those folks in his hip pocket.

The rest of the country? The voters of Latin American heritage who are becoming increasingly infuriated at Trump’s anti-Mexico rhetoric? Independent voters?

Whatever the GOP nominee hoped to accomplish with those folks has now, I believe, been flushed away.