The President of the United Mexican States and the Republican nominee will meet in Los Pinos, the presidential palace, which translates into “the pine trees.” They really will be sitting in the trees.
No, I have no idea what President Peña is trying to accomplish. The current president of Mexico is not popular; the only way that this meeting will help with that is if he somehow sandbags Trump. But that kind of thing has never been President Peña’s M.O.
One hypothesis from Andrew Selee at the Woodrow Wilson Center is that President Peña is just trying to “establish channels with whomever might be the next American president” and “from a political perspective, it shows that [Trump] has been forced to change some his rhetoric and take Mexico more seriously.”
But that can’t be right. One meeting does not open channels; heck, what does “opening channels” even mean? And who believes that the Mexican government has anything to do with recent Trumpista flip-flopping on immigration? Has anyone besides Selee even suggested that? (Well, maybe the people who put up the ad I spotted on Tlalpan Avenue back in May, see picture.) But Mexican officials can read the polls as well as anyone; they know that right now the Crybaby is unlikely to win in November.
The whole thing is weird, unless Peña springs a trap. Watch the news.
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