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Under Trump, Phone Calls With Mexico Would Be Very Different

GOP standard-bearer likely would scrap Biden's talk of partnership

Donald Trump has called for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to staunch the flow of undocumented immigrants. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)
Donald Trump has called for a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to staunch the flow of undocumented immigrants. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call file photo)

An otherwise businesslike White House statement on Mexico showed just how much U.S. policy toward its southern neighbor could soon change.  

The Obama administration released what’s called a “readout” of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ’s Wednesday telephone conversation with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto . It states that Biden talked up Mexico as a “bilateral partner” and a “regional leader,” and mentions calls for “deeper” integration of energy projects. Biden also credited Pena Nieto for his government’s recent judicial policy changes.  

Now imagine the same conversation between a senior Trump administration official and the president of a country the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said sends “rapists” and drug pushers and “criminals”  to the United States.  



[One Reason Donald Trump Should Be President]

Oh, and then there’s his idea of building a massive wall along the nearly 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border to halt the flow of unauthorized immigrants into the “land of the free and the home of the brave.”  

“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall,” Trump said as his unpredictable presidential bid got underway.   

So, yeah, these now-routine diplomatic check-in calls could be very different in just six months.  

Contact Bennett at johnbennett@cqrollcall.com. Follow on Twitter @BennettJohnT.

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