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A Lot of People Are Angry About Trump’s Visit to Mexico

Social media users and Mexican politicians are up in arms over Trump's visit to Mexico.

GettyImages-510727538
GettyImages-510727538

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called Mexicans rapists and criminals that bring drugs over the border to the United States -- and said he will build a wall to keep them out of the country. So it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise that a lot of people are angry about his plans to visit Mexico City to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has called Mexicans rapists and criminals that bring drugs over the border to the United States — and said he will build a wall to keep them out of the country. So it doesn’t exactly come as a surprise that a lot of people are angry about his plans to visit Mexico City to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Wednesday.

Much of the criticism of the visit comes from ordinary Twitter users, both English and Spanish speaking. The top trending hashtag on Mexican Twitter Wednesday was #SrTrumpConTodoRespeto — #MrTrumpWithAllDueRespect, followed by an insult. Mexicans offered Trump anatomical and romantic advice in blunt terms, but used the formal “usted” form to deliver it. Mexicans, frustrated with Peña Nieto’s ineffectiveness at stopping human rights abuses, widely shared images comparing Trump and their president to characters played by Jim Carrey and Jeff Bridges in the movie “Dumb & Dumber.”

The satirical news website El Deforma, similar to The Onion posted an article this morning “Boom! The 11 Questions Peña Nieto Has for Trump,” among them “But, tell me, are you a natural blond?” The article also featured the hapless Mexican president attempting to “negotiate” with Trump about his planned border wall by offering to pay for half of it, adding “and that’s the best I can do.”

Spanish speakers on Twitter are also using the hashtag #quepeñatrump — what a pity Trump — while English speakers are using the tag #TrumpsMexicoTripSayings. Here are some of the best.

https://twitter.com/gesusconge/status/770948269925019648/photo/1

Translation: And as Doña Florinda says: Go build a wall on your grandmother!

Trump even got into a social media spat with former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who once said of Trump’s planned border wall,”I’m not going to pay for that [expletive] wall! He should pay for it. He’s got the money.”

In a separate interview, Fox accused Trump of using Mexicans to get votes.

Outrage over the visit isn’t limited to Twitter. Speaking in Mexico City, Mexican Sen. Gabriela Cuevas Barron of the National Action Party said, “We feel a profound indignation that our president has invited a candidate who has insulted Mexico and Mexicans again and again. Today, what is at risk is the dignity of Mexico. Our president is playing games with both our dignity and our sovereignty.”

Cuevas Barron, who chairs the Mexican Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, went on to call Trump a “tyrant,” a “misogynist” and “openly anti-Mexican,” and reminded President Peña Nieto that he recently compared Trump’s rhetoric to that of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

“Trump is not welcome in Mexico,” Cuevas Barron added.

Photo credit: SPENCER PLATT/Getty Images

Megan Alpert is a fellow at Foreign Policy. Her previous bylines have included The Guardian, Guernica Daily, and Earth Island Journal. Twitter: @megan_alpert

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