His political views aside, I think most of us can agree that Donald Trump is the worst. A firm adherent of the “better to be reviled than ignored” maxim, he’s mastered the art of the jig – which is to say, being deliberately inflammatory and then happily basking in all the subsequent hateration and attention like a toupeed pig in mud. I wish I could say the jig is up, but here we are writing about Trump and the annoying things he said, if only as a case study in how stories are reported on both side of the border.
Yesterday, Trump called in to Fox & Friends to discuss his opinion on the Oscars and said the following:
“It was a great night for Mexico, as usual — you know, this country, the whole thing is ridiculous. This guy kept getting up and up and up. What’s he doing? He’s walking away with all the gold! Was it that good? I didn’t hear that. It was certainly a big night for them.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG2fJDlbltY
This immediately spawned a ton of articles in U.S. publications about how the Oscars were too Mexican for Donald Trump. Funnily enough, though, his far more offensive tweet (in my opinion anyway) didn’t really get much traction Stateside:
It was this comment – and not his Fox appearance – that really lit up the Latinternet, turning Trump into a Twitter trending topic in Mexico, and generating lots of social media commentary and coverage in Spanish-language publications.
The notion that it’s Mexicans who are doing most of the ripping off in this relationship is pretty LOL. But trolling aside, when you have Donald Trump, Iñárritu, and even the Pope (who recently used the term “Mexicanization” as a synonym for political corruption and illicit drug trading) calling out the problems with the nation’s government, it makes you sit back and say “well, damn.”
Those waiting for a response from el PRI shouldn’t hold their breaths though – Peña-Nieto is no Rafael Correa.