Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto was scheduled to visit Washington in the near future but the state visit has reportedly been canceled.
The Washington Post reported over the weekend that Nieto canceled the visit after a recent phone call with Trump in which Trump continued to rant about his fantasy border wall.
Speaking by phone on Tuesday, Peña Nieto and Trump devoted a considerable portion of their roughly 50 minute conversation to the wall, and neither man would compromise his position.
One Mexican official said Trump “lost his temper.” But U.S. officials described him instead as being frustrated and exasperated, saying Trump believed it was unreasonable for Peña Nieto to expect him to back off his crowd-pleasing campaign promise of forcing Mexico to pay for the wall.
You know, Trump had a chance to get his fantasy wall. All he had to do was agree to support a bill to codify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and he could have had it. DACA may yet survive in court without President Deals getting anything at all for it.
But that's not the only reason Trump's demand is absurd. He has repeatedly called on Congress to fund his wall. Why is he still saying Mexico should pay for it if he has already asked Congress to pay for it in his budget proposal?
The answer is clear: Trump thinks everyone in the world is just as stupid as he is.
I don't expect the average person gives two shit if the Mexican president has canceled his visit, but Trump's destructive relationship with him could make it even more likely that he'll unilaterally withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Every time Trump 'loses his temper' during phone calls with the Mexican president makes it less likely Nieto will support controversial changes to NAFTA favored by Trump's advisers and trade representative.
Trump think he's playing hard ball but all he's really doing is giving the world more reasons to tell us to fuck off.