Wall Street Journal: Trump’s treatment of Mexico is ‘amateur hour’

The Wall Street Journal on Thursday slammed President Trump’s treatment of Mexico, calling White House efforts to quell the turmoil between the two nations “amateur hour.”

“On Thursday morning Mr. Trump tweeted ‘if Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting,’ ” the newspaper’s editorial board wrote. “[President Enrique] Peña Nieto cancelled. Later Thursday Mr. Spicer added confusion with some comments about a border fee as part of tax reform. Chief of Staff Reince Priebus tried to walk that back, but this is amateur hour.”

The Journal also warned Trump that his hard-line rhetoric on Mexico could force the U.S.’s southern neighbor to turn back to the anti-American sentiments that dominated the country’s political landscape prior to the 1980s.

{mosads}Stressing the importance of the U.S. trade relationship with Mexico, the editorial board said the president could hamper “Mexicans’ progress toward joining their North American neighbors as prosperous free-market democracies.”

“With a population of 128 million, Mexico is America’s second-largest export market for goods,” it said. “Some six million U.S. jobs depend on trade with Mexico.”

What’s more, the Journal wrote, leftist factions in Mexico are waiting to take advantage of souring relations with the U.S., and anti-American politicians are preparing to take advantage of the turmoil.

Trump took a hard-line stance on Mexico throughout his presidential campaign, straining ties with the country. But the tensions grew this week, when Trump signed an executive action ordering the construction of a wall along the U.S. southern border, a longtime campaign promise.

In a rebuke to Trump’s actions, Peña Nieto canceled a scheduled meeting with the U.S. president on Thursday. Peña Nieto previously called Trump’s proposed border wall an assault “against our dignity as a country and our dignity as Mexicans.”