Trump's Mexican Foray Fails

I guess we will have to wait for the polls to tell us how Donald Trump’s trip to Mexico and his definitive (for the moment) policy speech on immigration went. But I can’t believe it went over well. At first, it seemed that Trump’s meeting with Mexican President Pena Nieto went as well as it possibly could – it was really a nothing-burger, a photo op, with some vague discussions of issues related to Mexican American relations. Unfortunately, at the post-meeting press gathering, Trump took a question on whether they had discussed the wall and Trump answered that the wall was discussed but not who would pay for it.  Considering the whole thrust of the Trump campaign has been that Mexico would pay for the wall, it seemed that Trump had thrown away a glaring opportunity to discuss the issue. But that was really a minor error as Trump could always claim that now was not the time to negotiate that deal. But it only got worse when Pena Nieto tweeted shortly after Trump had left that he had specifically made the point that Mexico would not pay for the wall. Now Trump was basically accused of lying when he answered the reporter’s question. When you emerge from a meeting with another world leader and can not agree on what was actually said in the meeting, it does not enhance your presidential credentials in the way the Trump campaign had hoped. And it absolutely does not instill confidence in your foreign policy capabilities.

Of course, for Trump supporters, all that is basically meaningless. They were just waiting for his speech in Arizona to see whether he really was softening his immigration policies or not. And, on that score, Trump delivered the red meat to his base – deportation forces, Mexico will pay for the wall, extreme vetting, immigrants are criminals – reverting back to his position in the primaries. He put any idea of softening his immigration position to bed, at least for the immediate future. But this is Trump after all. It is also hard to see how the juxtaposition of his rather tame performance in Mexico and his firebrand speech in Arizona will help him look like he has the temperament to be President.

All in all, I think it was on net another negative for the Trump campaign. Seemingly, the whole idea behind this potential softening of his immigration policy and the Mexican foray was to help Trump look presidential and sway white, suburban voters. Instead, they got to see Trump as he is – having difficulty with the truth and lacking the temperament to lead. In addition, the supposed softening of his immigration position that he totally repudiated last night has only led to confusion about what his position actually is, although that may have been part of the plan. But to see it refuted so forcefully totally negates the effort of the past two weeks. We will have to see whether the polls over the next few days agree with that analysis.