Government - Hopefully, Trump Will Never Be Part Of Any Government
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Email to friendUS Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump gave his much-promoted policy address on immigration; it contained nothing new, but racists and white supremacists loved it. The angry address capped a day in which Trump actually went to Mexico.
Trump ditched his media contingent in Phoenix, Arizona and flew to Mexico City early in the day to visit with President Enrique Pena Nieto; it was a risk that went well for the American politician, but not for Pena Nieto. While Mexico's chief executive said that Mexicans felt "aggrieved" and had disagreements with the Republican presidential candidate, he failed to demand an apology for Trump referring to to Mexican immigrants to the US as "rapists" and "thieves". And while Trump appeared to be more conciliatory, he repeated his controversial proposal to build a wall on the US-Mexican Border.
Trump even got away with telling a lie: Before slinking out of the news conference in Mexico City, he sheepishly claimed that the subject of which country would pay for the wall never came up, which is kind of strange coming from the man who purports himself to be a great negotiator. How is it that the guy who talks about the wall proposal in each and every campaign stop was too chicken to bring it up in a meeting with the president of the country he wants to finance this pipedream?
"Trump just failed his first foreign test. Diplomacy isn't as easy as it looks," former Secretary of State and Democratic Party Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted, signed with an "H" to indicate she personally blessed the message.
But Pena Nieto failed to challenge that, and waited until after the American had fled back north to correct the record and say that he did tell Trump that Mexico would not pay for such a boondoggle. Pena Nieto's approval rating was already at an all-time low near 20 percent, according to recent polls. It's going to go lower after this debacle.
Later on Wednesday night in Phoenix, Arizona, Trump gave a prime-time policy address which was billed as a clarification of his views on immigration. Instead of nuance and detail, Trump railed and ranted and made poking and slashing hand gestures that might have seemed more at home in a Munich beer hall in the 1930s. Racists liked it, and there's no wonder why: He began with a list of murders committed by people in the US illegally, and then repeatedly lied about immigration policy, life for those in the country illegally, and their impact on the US.
Trump claimed that undocumented workers are given social benefits; untrue. He exaggerated their numbers. He claimed that under the Obama administration frees people caught crossing the border illegally; in fact, the administration has no say in the process, and releases are ordered by the courts. He repeated his lies about immigrants committing more crimes than citizens; the reverse is true.
Much of the US corporate media failed to note that the candidate who talks tough in his rallies had actually choked when he got into the room with the president of Mexico.
Clinton: In Mexico 'Trump just failed his first foreign test'
Story highlights
- Clinton slammed Trump's last-minute visit to Mexico
- Clinton: Building alliances takes "more than a photo-op, it takes consistency and reliability"
Cincinnati (CNN)Hillary Clinton on Wednesday night dismissed Donald Trump's day trip to Mexico, arguing the Republican nominee is woefully lacking in diplomatic skills and "just failed his first foreign test."