Vicente Fox’s renewed campaign against Donald Trump isn’t over just because the Republican nominee’s short trip to Mexico is over. After all, between Trump’s teleprompter-controlled remarks with current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, and his typically shout-y campaign speech in Arizona later that day, there’s plenty of new fodder for the former Mexican leader to discuss. Hence Fox’s Thursday morning appearance on CNN’s New Day, his second in as many days.
Chief among his talking points was Trump’s proposed border wall, which the White House hopeful has long used as a rallying cry among supporters. Fox repeated his initial criticism of Trump’s “f*cking wall,” but unlike his past remarks, the retired Mexican politician took an economic approach this time around:
“Mexico contributes at least with 10 million U.S. jobs for U.S. citizens for those who are backing up Trump. Mexico provides those jobs. So if we have to quit our relationship because he is proposing that, the first loser is the same United States. And of course, Mexico has where to replace, where to go, to work to rebuild, we can go to many places in the world and many economies that are successful. Really here, my message is, please wake up, America. You have everything to lose and nothing to win with this false prophet.”
In other words, Fox suggested Trump’s wall (and his intent to upend, or at least alter, NAFTA) would do more economic harm than good. Not so much for Mexican workers, who would then seek employment elsewhere, but for the United States. It’s an especially telling remark, considering Trump boasted he was “proud to say how many [Mexicans] I employ” during his speech with President Peña.
As for the New York real estate mogul’s flip-flopping on whether or not Mexico would pay for the wall, Fox dubbed Trump a “liar” and warned Americans and Mexicans alike against trusting him: “He’s lying to U.S. voters, to U.S. followers, and he came to Mexico to lie to Mexican people.”
(Via Politico)
