Fox says Trump must “stop tweeting” and “start thinking”
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday that his country’s hard-fought ties with the U.S. remains strong in spite of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and “long tongue.”
“The relationship between our two nations is great. He is all-time low,” Fox told The Denver Post while touring Metropolitan State University of Denver. “He is (an) all-time empty threat.”
Fox also pointed the finger at the U.S. for fueling Mexico’s problems with cartels and violence, saying the U.S. demand for illicit drugs has fueled crime in his home country.
“Some of the problems we have in Mexico are caused here,” Fox said. “Like drugs and violence — that’s originated here with the huge consumer (drug) market, the largest in the world.”
Fox is in Colorado this week for a Global Chamber Denver forum focusing on ways to improve and grow the U.S.-Mexico economic relationship. Since coming to town, he has kept up his attacks on Trump over immigration and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Be presidential. Think presidential. Act presidential,” Fox said of his advice to Trump. “Stop tweeting. Start thinking. Start building a team. Start thinking about the nation, the neighbors. He should forget about business and be a politician and be a good president. … He’s got a long learning process ahead.”
Fox also appeared earlier Wednesday with Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, and consul general of Canada in Denver Stéphane Lessard for a discussion on immigration and NAFTA with MSU president Janine Davidson.
The three men lauded the community contributions of immigrants and agreed that dismantling NAFTA — as Trump has suggested he might do to the pact between the U.S., Canada and Mexico — would harm all of North America.
Hickenlooper, however, called for reforms of the trade pact.
“To imagine that NAFTA, which is essentially unchanged, is still the same useful mechanism it was 25 years ago or 20 years ago I think is hallucinatory,” Hickenlooper said. “I think we have to change NAFTA. There are all kinds of places it can be improved and made more fair.”