GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump travels Wednesday to Mexico, where he’ll meet privately with the president of the country he’s treated as a punching bag since launching his campaign.
The news of the visit was received poorly in Mexico, given that Trump has repeatedly portrayed the country’s people in broad terms as “rapists” and drug-dealing criminals. Historian Enrique Krauze demanded that Trump use the opportunity to apologize for his repeated insults.
If Trump wanted to be neighborly, here are some other comments that he could apologize for before his visit.
Calling Mexico an ‘enemy’...
Trump’s been known to do this on Twitter. It’s not good for diplomacy.
...and ‘not our friend.’
When you love someone, you shouldn’t publicly challenge them to a fight using all caps.
Insisting that Mexico pay for his border wall.
This is a farcical bit of wishful thinking that no Mexican administration could accept without committing political suicide. Let it go, Trump.
Threatening to seize remittances.
One of the ways Trump has said he’ll compel Mexico to pay for the wall is by seizing remittances, the money that Mexicans living in the U.S. send back to their families. Threatening to steal millions of people’s money is rude, especially when it’s an empty threat ― experts agree that people cut off from wire transfers will simply use other informal means of sending money across borders.
Praising Ann Coulter.
The right-wing pundit, who wrote a fan book called In Trump We Trust that she may come to regret, has built her career on bashing Latin American immigrants and characterizing Mexico as a horrific glimpse of America’s dystopian future. Renouncing her support would help ease tensions with our southern neighbor.
Backhandedly insulting one of Mexico’s great film directors.
When Alejandro González Iñárritu won the Oscar for best director last year for his film “The Revenant,” Trump had this to say:
Do the grown-up thing, Trump. Say you’re sorry.
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
Before You Go
