House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told a Mexican newspaper Monday that Mexico should not worry about Donald Trump.
Pelosi and a delegation of representatives met with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto Monday, kicking off a three-country tour to discuss security, trade, migration and human rights.
{mosads}In the interview with the newspaper Reforma, Pelosi said Trump “is speaking to a minority, people who are insecure, who maybe lost their job and think it was because of immigration, because of trade, so I think it’s putting too much weight on all this, but he only has one half of one half, 25 percent.”
The delegation also included Democratic Reps. Norma Torres, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Pete Aguilar and Linda Sanchez (Calif.); Beto O’Rourke and Henry Cuellar (Texas); Ruben Gallego (Ariz.); Michelle Lujan Grisham (N.M.); and Republicans Michael Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Richard Hanna (N.Y.).
“Donald Trump does not have the power to break the more than 100-year-old relationship between the United States and Mexico,” said Gallego in Spanish, adding, “Our relationship will survive Donald Trump, and it will survive this election.”
Trump’s campaign has focused on the promise of deporting all undocumented immigrants and building a wall on the border paid for by Mexico.
Although Mexican officials initially expressed concern and responded directly to Trump, they have shown more restraint in the past few weeks.
Mexico overhauled its representation in the United States in April, changing the ambassador and most of its consuls, in response to “a group within the U.S. population with a negative perception of Mexico and the Mexicans,” said Paulo Carreño King, Mexico’s newly appointed undersecretary for North American affairs and architect of the new strategy.
The U.S. delegation will also visit Peru and Chile, two Latin American countries that, along with Mexico, are signatories of the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership, President Obama’s signature trade deal.