Americans have reacted to the leak of Trump's phone call with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment, but how have Mexican officials reacting?
They're laughing, to be sure, but they're also alarmed that America is being run by such an amateurish moron.
McClatchy spoke with foreign policy veteran Jorge Guajardo who says his colleagues are "bewildered."
WASHINGTON -- When Jorge Guajardo, one of Mexico’s most senior and seasoned foreign policy hands, got out of bed Thursday morning, a couple of interesting messages were waiting on his cell phone.
One was a link shared by a U.S. diplomat to the leaked transcript of a phone conversation between U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto. In the second, a former Mexican official offered the quick analysis.
“He’s the opposite of Teddy Roosevelt,” that official quipped to Guajardo about Trump. “He speaks loudly and carries a small stick.”
That's going to leave mark.
“They’re totally bewildered,” he said. “That’s the reaction. It’s almost beyond the point of angry and insulted and more just what is this all about. How do we make sense of this?”
Guajardo said it’s fine to joke about it, but the reality is that people expect more from the United States and any leader with a “shred of dignity” is not going to allow themselves to be spoken to in that way.
What diplomats and world leaders will soon learn, if they haven't already, is that Trump talks to everyone this way. Well, everyone except Vladimir Putin.
I would say Trump is more polite when he talks to Putin than his own wife, but it's not clear if Trump even speaks to his wife.
It's going to take a very long time to recover from Trump.