President Trump spent his Friday afternoon hosting Hispanic Heritage Month at the White House with First Lady Melania Trump.
He held the event with Hispanic leaders from around the United States and gave a speech honoring the month. Everything was going well until Trump told the crowd:
“You have a wonderful president in Mexico.”
For one, yes, many Hispanic Americans come from Mexico, but they are Hispanic Americans. They’re not citizens of Mexico. Trump should have stated: “Mexico has a wonderful president.” Would he have made that comment to a bunch of white Americans?
Needless to say, the comment left many people flabbergasted.
Watch the spectacle unfold here:
While it’s true, Trump made a number of kind remarks, he also let his tendency to talk too much get him trouble.
Trump tried to joke by saying Latino leaders in the U.S. were “too tough” on him, but that he ultimately just has “to deal with it.”
Here is some of the outrage people expressed after hearing of his comment:
To him, Latinos = Mexicans ≠ Americans
— Ricky Garza (@RickyAGarza) October 6, 2017
you know anybody beige, khaki, brown, tan, cafe con leche, or even olive is not white and NOT HIS PEOPLE (White supremacist )
— Valerie Fillmore (@ValerieFillmore) October 6, 2017
Khaki pic.twitter.com/Iw4AlbrX1Q
— Michael (@Michael23921465) October 6, 2017
Conservatives have spoken like this for decades. Real Americans. Real America. How do people not understand their blatant racism yet?
— LardOfDorkness (@LardFDorkness) October 6, 2017
Conservatives have spoken like this for decades. Real Americans. Real America. How do people not understand their blatant racism yet?
— LardOfDorkness (@LardFDorkness) October 6, 2017
Perhaps he has secret plans for them to become citizens of Mexico in the very near future?
— Vick Mickunas (@BookNookVick) October 6, 2017
Spared them the embarrassment of being reminded who their actual @POTUS is. Give @realDonaldTrump some credit.
— Steve Millies (@stevenpmillies) October 6, 2017
Perhaps he thinks he’s president of Mexico
— Adam Wolf (@awolf12) October 6, 2017
Yes because he doesn’t think people with brown skin are American. That’s been clear for awhile.
— farsteph (@Farsteph) October 6, 2017
Rex called him a moron again, this time in Spanish.
— WHBlakemore (@Woodyman502) October 6, 2017
Maybe Trump is alluding to the fact that several of these Hispanics will soon be Mexicans, given his recent actions by announcing the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA.
It will terminate an Obama-era provision that allows children from illegal immigrants to legally be permitted to stay in the country. If ended by Congress, it would send nearly 800,000 children who were brought into the U.S. at no fault of their own, to go back to their parents’ home countries, a land they were never raised in.
President Trump may be sabotaging his own deal on DACA he struck with Democrats last month. pic.twitter.com/wU7yrpkVAA
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) October 6, 2017
While Trump called the Mexican President “wonderful,” Mexico’s economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, didn’t exactly have that many kind things to say about Trump just a day prior. On Thursday, he said Trump was seeking to unleash a “protectionist war” by undoing NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), and that as a result, it would increase the prices of goods.
“We are in the NAFTA (worst trade deal ever made) renegotiation process with Mexico & Canada.Both being very difficult, may have to terminate?” Trump tweeted.
In the coming days, representatives from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada will meet to discuss changes to the landmark trade deal, which he blames for the outsourcing of American jobs and a growing trade deficit with Mexico.
