Mexico President Enrique Pena Nieto Willing to Meet With Donald Trump if he is Elected President [VIDEO]
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto concedes he will be willing to meet with Donald Trump if he ascends to the White House and is tabbed as President Barack Obama's successor.
Mere months after comparing the man who has vowed to deport millions of immigrants if elected to Hitler and Mussolini, Pena Nieto was a bit more diplomatic in a more recent interview, telling reporters, "Yes, I would meet with him."
Issues With Trump Still Present
Pena Nieto made certain to establish he still doesn't agree with much of what Trump is on record in asserting, but added, "I will be absolutely respectful and will seek to work with whomever becomes the next president."
In addition to making his vow of mass deportations, Trump has also pledged to build a wall along the Mexican border to further keep immigrants out, adding he would even force Mexico to pay for its construction.
Pena Nieto has previously shot down such notions, vowing under no circumstances will Mexico foot the bill for such an investment.
Meanwhile, Pena Nieto's predecessors have been even more outspoken in voicing their opposition to some of the things Trump has uttered, going as far as to contend his xenophobic rhetoric has damaged years of goodwill built up between the two nations and altered the overall way Mexicans view Americans.
"Trump is saying stupid things, but the problem is that 40 percent of Republicans say, 'Yes, you're right,' " recently raged Vicente Fox, who along Felipe Calderon served as the country's president from 2000 to 2012.
"They are hearing the prophet telling them that he is going to take them to the Promised Land," he added. "But he is going to lead everybody into the desert to die of hunger and thirst. He is a false prophet."
Speaking directly to Trump's wall proposal, Calderon added "Good collaboration between governments is a safer way to protect the United States than any stupid wall. We won't pay a single cent for that stupid wall."
Mexico Big Ally for U.S.
It's estimated that Mexico does more than $500 billion a year in trade with the United States, surpassing such nations as China and Japan and making Trump's proposals all the more off base to some.
"On the economic front, if you want to build walls and slap tariffs, you're going to trigger a trade war with your second-largest buyer of goods," said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to U.S. from 2007 to 2013. "If you slap tariffs on Mexico, Mexico will slap reprisal tariffs on U.S. products."
Calderon also noted at least some of Trump's proposals could result in job losses here in the U.S., not to mention leave America more vulnerable to possible terrorist infiltrations based on its strained relationship with Mexico.
"We have been collaborating a lot," he said. "If Donald Trump intends to have a neighbor who is insulted on a daily basis, it would be naive to think that such collaboration would prevail. Actually, there would be no collaboration at all."
* This is a contributed article and this content does not necessarily represent the views of latinpost.com