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Trying to Make Sense of Donald Trump's Visit with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 31, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | August 31, 2016 |


In case you missed it, late last night it was announced that Donald Trump would be visiting Mexico to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto today.

Just a refresher. This is what Trump thinks of Mexico.

He’s not exactly beloved there.

I mean …

And it’s not like Peña Nieto is a fan of Trump’s.

Then why is Trump visiting Mexico to meet their President?

This sounds exactly like what Trump might do.

It would explain this:

Will a Mexican President who is already deeply unpopular in his country use the opportunity to stand up to Trump and gain back public favor? It’s the only reason I can see for him to agree to the meeting.

From Talking Points Memo:

It’s a general rule of politics not to enter into unpredictable situations or cede control of an event or happening to someone who wants to hurt you. President Nieto definitely does not want Donald Trump to become President. He probably assumes he won’t become president, simply by reading the polls. President Nieto is himself quite unpopular at the moment. But no one is more unpopular than Donald Trump. Trump is reviled. Toadying to Trump would be extremely bad politics; standing up to him, good politics.

Put those factors together and Peña Nieto has massive and overlapping reasons to want to embarrass Trump. At a minimum since he’s probably not eager to create a true international incident, he has zero interest in appearing in any way accommodating or helpful.

But it could easily backfire.

There is, however, one possible upside:

It’s going to be a weird day, you guys.