Almost as soon as they get off the plane and people identified them as Americans they were asking if Donald Trump was for real and not in a good way.

I hear it from my own friends in Europe.
I only hope that I can get there before he becomes president.

However, the people I meet traveling around the world know very well what is going on and the topic never even comes up.

I was all over the UK and Europe and everywhere I went people wanted to know if Americans were stupid enough to elect Reagan. They were hoping it was some sort of American joke and they weren't in on it.

Trump being the GOP nominee is an emergency.
Narcoterrorists in his country killing thousands of Mexicans every year is no emergency.

Strange priorities.

who ran a country so corrupt and incompetent, that despite ample natural resources and an industrious people, much of the Mexican population still chooses to illegally cross into or remain in our country, to such a degree that foreign remittances are a larger source of income that oil, and the migrants are aided by the government.

Rather than complain about idiots like Trump, maybe the Mexican government and people like Fox should focus on their own population so that they don't want to leave their country or work for the cartels.

Every time a Mexican government official complains about Trump, he becomes more popular with large segments of the American electorate, largely in swing and industrial states.

If part of our election strategy is proclaiming how current and past Mexican presidents don't like Trump, we might as well get used to saying "President Trump."

Especially because the kind of people that support Trump not only don't care about the opinions of other world leaders, they take derision from Fox to be a good sign.

There is a lot of trade between the US and Mexico, and the ramifications of a hostile government is daunting.

than drug cartels and murder. Got it.

But, really, if there is a dispute, Mexico is going to end up on the losing side.

The. Trade. Relationship. Is. A. Concern.
There, does speaking to you like a five year old help you understand?

His anti-immigrant comments are primarily directed at both moderate and independent law and order voters and blue-collar union members, including the very same types of Democrats who helped elect people like Reagan.

Complaints from current and former foreign leaders, who like Fox are often corruption-tainted oligarchs, simply help spread and reinforce Trump's "America first and always" message. Americans don't like being scolded by hypocritical foreigners any more than anyone else, to say nothing of the fact that illegal immigration is still a strong wedge issue in many important states.

I also believe worries about trade suffering under Trump are quite overblown. That trade benefits Mexico far more than the USA, and Trump is all for international big business. What might happen is that there will be a greater crackdown on illegal immigration and matters like sanctuary city policies, but even Mexico is not about to jeopardize the benefits of NAFTA and other economic ties, which Trump quite correctly notes are not always good for American workers.

In the horrible event Trump is elected president, I fully expect Mexican officials to adopt a far more moderate tone and discuss things like "dialogue" and "common interests," rather than further anger a sitting American president and risk trade and industrial benefits moving from Mexico to other parts of Latin America and Asia.

Mr Trump is all about being the biggest bully around. The more the leaders of other countries hate him, the happier his supporters will be. They have imbibed the dictum of "Let them hate us, so long as they fear us," and hope that Mr Trump will "make America Great Again" by forcing other countries to knuckle under. You know, much as he has forced the leaders of the GOP to knuckle under.

-- Mal