A few quick thoughts on the joint press conference between Mexican President Pena Nieto and Donald Trump. On balance, I think it was what I earlier today called the best possible outcome for Trump: “an uneventful and generally boring meeting or one in which Trump and Pena Nieto get into a spat or trade insults.” Obviously, this was option one.
A few thoughts.
Just a few moments again Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a major Trump surrogate, was asked on CNN if he was troubled by Trump not asking the President of Mexico to pay for the Wall …
“No, what difference does it make. The wall is important no matter who pays for it. If Mexico doesn’t pay for it, they do get foreign aid. Maybe we can deduct the price from the foreign aid. I’m not trying to be nasty.”
As I’ve explained – somewhat contrary to what seems to be the received wisdom – I don’t think this went well for Trump. The presidential visuals were definitely good. Pena Nieto was passive and even obsequious. But the key in my mind is that Trump refused to discuss who would pay for the Trump Wall, a centerpiece of Trump’s whole campaign. I think that will continue to be a telling moment well after the visuals have subsided. I will stick with that interpretation. But there’s another part of the equation: the blowback for Pena Nieto in Mexico.
We’re now hearing from President Pena Nieto as well as his press people that Donald Trump didn’t tell the truth when he said the two hadn’t discussed who’d pay for the wall. Pena Nieto says they did discuss it and he made clear at the outset of their conversations that Mexico would never pay for it.
It’s a quite legitimate question why Pena Nieto didn’t contradict Trump when Trump made this claim on stage with him. Maybe he’s lying. Maybe Trump’s lying. But remember, Trump’s a pathological liar. Pena Nieto? I have no idea about his reputation for truth telling.
Late Update: Here’s the Clinton camp’s first go at it. Not bad. But certainly not enough.
Let me share a few more thoughts on how this Trump-Peña Nieto situation is shaking out.
9:36 PM: Nothing much yet.
9:38 PM: I think we can see where this is going: talk louder to breeze over shift in positions.
9:44 PM: So far this is another blood curdling speech about Americans murdered by people in the country illegally.
9:45 PM: On how many undocumented immigrants are in the USA: “It could be 3 million or 30 million. They have no idea.”
9:52 PM: “We will build a great wall along the southern border … And Mexico will pay for the wall. They don’t know it yet. But they’re gonna pay for it.”
Okay, so Trump confirms build the wall and Mexico pays.
10:02 PM: So there will be a “Deportation Task Force” created within ICE.
A sampling of leading white supremacists and anti-semites reacting to Trump’s speech. Preview: They loved it!
We’ve now heard Trump’s big immigration policy speech.
Let me start with a general comment on tone. This was as wild and as unbridled a speech as I’ve seen from Trump. Even if you couldn’t understand English, it would be stunning to watch the slashing hand gestures, the red face, the yelling. It’s hard to imagine any presidential candidate in living memory giving such a speech. And again, this is if you didn’t know what the words even meant.
Like most bullies, Trump turns out to be a coward. After a year of cocky boasting about making Mexico pay for his Wall and like it, Trump went silent when he actually met face to face with the Mexican President. He seems even to have lied about the issue even coming up in their meeting. And when it did, if we credit the account of Mexico’s President, he didn’t respond. But as soon as we was back before a friendly crowd, he was back to the same swagger and boasting. “They don’t know it yet, but they’re going to pay for it.” It’s almost a cliched version of the schoolyard bully who falls apart when he has to follow through on his boasts or breaks down in tears when threatened.
Just as cocky on Twitter (from this morning)
Mexico will pay for the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2016
I thought it’d be helpful to compile a timeline of the last 10 days of build-up to the big Trump immigration speech that was supposedly going to represent a break from his past demagoguing on this issue. Yes, you should have been skeptical all along that much was going to change, or that any change would be more than window dressing. But there was ample evidence from Trump himself and his aides that some sort of shift was afoot. It wasn’t just media hype or cluelessness. What emerges from the timeline is how utterly unmoored and erratic Trump and his campaign are. Nothing captured that quite like the day and night contrast between Mexico City yesterday afternoon and Phoenix last night. But the timeline shows that’s consistent with the same erratic dance Team Trump has been performing for a week and a half. Take a look.