Transcripts reveal Trump’s chats with world leaders.
MEXICO CITY » The leaked transcript of a phone call between President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto published Thursday by The Washington Post left some Mexicans flabbergasted, even in a country where politics is commonly called surreal and where embarrassing phone calls by politicians are often filtered to the press.
One popular Mexican radio host compared the call to a “Saturday Night Live” skit. Others said that Trump was using tough talk to threaten the Mexican leader as if he were a Trump employee.
Peña Nieto appeared patient throughout the call, winning some rare praise from a population unhappy with his presidency. He po- litely told Trump - again - that Mexico would not pay to build a wall on the U.S.Mexican border.
“My position has been and will continue to be very firm, saying that Mexican cannot pay for the wall,” Peña Nieto told Trump in the January phone call.
“You cannot say that to the press. The press is going to with that, and I cannot live with that,” Trump replied. “If you’re not going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore because I cannot live with that.” He then went on to boast that he could make Peña Nieto so popular that he could get lawmakers to change the Mexican constitution so that he could seek reelection.
The Post obtained the transcripts of phone calls Trump made a week after his inauguration to both Peña Nieto and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.
Of the call to the Mexican president, Fernando Dworak, an independent political analyst in Mexico City, said: “It’s one thing to negotiate as a businessman and another as a president. Giving instructions to leaders of other countries is following this script, which is not only imperial, but completely useless for diplomacy.”
Others, however, criticized Peña Nieto’s posture during the call and said the Mexican leader needed to be more assertive in sticking up for Mexican interests.
“If the Mexican president had taken a clearer and stronger stand he could have been able to improve his position internally - politically and public- opinion wise,” said Carlos. Bravo Regidor, professor at the Center for Teaching and Research in Economics in Mexico City. “The position he assumed from the beginning was weak. Maybe because he is weak.”
Bravo conceded, however, that Peña Nieto “is trying to navigate a very difficult situation. The leaking of the conversation portrays him generally in a good light. He is making an effort. He is being reasonable.”
Parts of the transcript were especially eye-popping, such as when Trump appeared to be offering political assistance to Peña Nieto. “I want you to be so popular that your people will call for a constitutional amendment in Mexico so that you can run again for another six years,” Trump said. Mexico’s constitution prohibits presidential reelection, and Peña Nieto is scheduled to leave office in December 2018.