Did Trump’s meeting with Mexico’s president improve his image?
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Donald Trump’s surprise visit to Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday may have been intended to win over Latino voters in this country.
But some Latinos say it will be difficult for them to forget the way he has insulted them.
“It’s not a good thing for Donald Trump,” said Republican political adviser Juan Hernandez, who now works for Libertarian presidential candidate Gov. Gary Johnson. “He has insulted us Hispanics. He has insulted our family members. He has told us we are criminals, and going to Mexico will not help him to get our vote.”
What’s more, Peña Nieto is also unpopular in Mexico, according to recent media polls. By meeting with the Mexican president, Trump could be further alienating himself with Latinos, some suggested.
Peña Nieto “doesn’t care about the people” of his country, “and the people there, they don’t like him,” David Platon said. The 36-year-old construction worker from Hidalgo, Mexico, was about to order a lunch of nopales with bistec at a Mexican restaurant in the Sunnyslope neighborhood in north-central Phoenix, which has a large population of Mexican immigrants.
Inside the same restaurant, Jesus Cazares had just been watching news coverage on TV of Trump’s meeting with Peña Nieto.
“I don’t know why the Mexican president would invite Donald Trump after all the hateful things he’s said about Mexicans,” Cazares said, adding he thinks Trump is “hateful,” but not racist.
Cazares, a U.S. citizen who came here as a child from the state of Michoacán, said Trump seemed to be trying to improve his public-opinion standing with Mexicans by meeting with Peña Nieto.
“But with this, I think it’s just going to get worse. I think it was a bad call on Peña Nieto’s part,” said Cazares, a registered Democrat who works in guest services at a Phoenix hotel.
Hernandez, the political adviser who was in Phoenix to hear the candidate’s highly anticipated immigration speech, said Trump’s meeting with Peña Nieto seemed calculated to grab attention.
“He’s a genius. He’s a genius of reality shows,” Hernandez said. Hernandez was the Hispanic outreach director for U.S. Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential race and is now in the same role for Johnson, the Libertarian presidential candidate.
In addition, Trump hopes to show Latinos who have been turned off by his campaign rhetoric that he can work with Mexico while looking presidential, Hernandez said.
“It shows that as a candidate he is able to call on the president (of Mexico) and just snap his fingers and the president of Mexico meets with him, even after he has insulted Mexico,” Hernandez said.
He said Trump’s visit to Mexico could also hurt the Mexican president.
Dogged by accusations of corruption, Peña Nieto’s approval ratings are at 23 percent, according to a leading newspaper poll. That could sink further by meeting with Trump, Hernandez said.
He said he believes Peña Nieto invited both presidential candidates, Trump and Hillary Clinton, to Mexico in a bid to raise his popularity. But the gamble backfired. “He never expected Trump would say yes,” Hernandez said. “It sounded like a good idea to one of his advisers, but (it’s turned out to be) very, very bad news. All over Mexico, it’s #noeresbienvenidoTrump — You are not welcome, Trump.”
Peña Nieto said the visit was positive. “I believe in dialogue in order to promote Mexican interests across the world and especially to protect Mexicans wherever they may be,” he tweeted, according to the New York Times.