Former
Mexican President Vicente Fox blasted President Donald Trump on Friday, calling
him a "child" and mockingly referring to him as a corporate
"CEO" rather than president of the world's most powerful country.
In an
interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box," the outspoken Fox said Mexico won't
pay for the wall Trump wants to build along the border, "not now, not
ever."
Fox also
said he doesn't believe Trump is an American "in his soul and his
beliefs." He added he does not understand the current state of the United
States.
Shortly
after Fox's interview, Trump tweeted Friday morning:
Mexico has
taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough. Massive trade deficits &
little help on the very weak border must change, NOW!
"We get
this CEO Trump coming in to sit in the presidential chair and keep acting as a
child, as a CEO of his corporations, making deals he says, but he in reality is
making mad everybody like it happened with Mexico," Fox said.
"Fortunately,
President Pena stood up, faced him and canceled the visit," he said.
The Mexican
peso was relatively stable against the dollar Friday morning, after getting hit
Thursday by the Twitter war between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena
Nieto over the U.S. president's border wall plans. A summit meeting between the
two has been canceled.
The White
House on Thursday floated the notion of a 20 percent tax on goods from Mexico
to pay for the wall.
But later in
the day, Trump's press secretary clarified , saying the tax idea was among
several under consideration to help fulfill Trump's promise that Mexico would
reimburse the U.S. for the cost of building the wall.
Fox said a
20 percent tax on goods from Mexico would actually be a tax on American
taxpayers and American businesses because many cars are made in his country.
"Nobody
wins on a trade war," Fox said. "This is what we have to make this
kid understand, this CEO. It's not the same as business. Trading is a win/win
situation. Why he does not speak about Canada? Canada exports more cars to the
United States than Mexico. He doesn't say a word there. India is taking away 4½
million jobs from United States on the outsourcing to call centers, software
manufacturing in India. And he doesn't say a word."
He said
Mexico would have no trouble finding other trading partners.
"We
don't worry about trading. We have China to trade with, the second largest
world economy," he said. "South America is doing a lot of trading
with China. China will come and invest. And I'm sure Senor Trump would not like
to see Chinese telecom towers on the border but that's what he's forcing us to
do. The world is much, much larger than United States."
No comments:
Post a Comment