Trump meeting is public relations disaster for Mexico's Enrique Peña Nieto

Associated Press
Thursday 1 September 2016 13.19 BST

President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico’s decision to meet with possibly his country’s most-disliked man is turning into a public relations disaster for him, with social media posters and politicians calling it a national humiliation likely to lower the president’s already historically low popularity ratings.

Not only did Peña Nieto not demand that Donald Trump apologize for calling Mexican migrants rapists and criminals, but he stood silently by in their joint press conference while the Republican candidate repeated his promise to build a border wall between the countries.

“This is an insult and a betrayal,” said artist Arturo Meade as he joined a protest against Wednesday’s meeting in Mexico City. “What can this meeting bring us except surrealism in all its splendor?”

Televisa news anchor Carlos Loret de Mola marveled that Trump would dare come to Mexico and reiterate his intention to build the wall. “The humiliation is now complete,” he tweeted.

Particularly irksome to Mexicans was that Peña Nieto appeared to do little to push back against Trump’s earlier negative statements about Mexican migrants and unpopular proposals.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]