President Obama’s decision to meet with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto the day after the GOP convention ends is intended to “highlight the strong relationship between the U.S. and Mexico,” the White House said Wednesday.
But presidential press secretary Josh Earnest said the pair of leaders had no intention of spending time discussing Donald Trump or his plans to build a wall between Mexico and the United States.
“I would not anticipate much time at all being spent on discussing that,” Earnest said. “There are any number of important substantive issues between the U.S. and Mexico.
“What President Obama has found over his seven-and-a-half years in office is that effectively investing in the relationship with Mexico has strengthened the security and economy of the U.S.,” he added, arguing that coordination on counter-narcotic efforts and other security issues have improved security on both sides of the border.
Obama announced the visit last week. The two leaders discussed the possibility of the visit at the “Three Amigos Summit” late last month. After a bilateral meeting, the two leaders plan to hold a press conference where they will inevitably field several questions about Trump and the anti-illegal immigration message of the GOP convention.
Obama, Earnest said, has “worked effectively with the Mexican government” on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement to raise labor, environmental and intellectual property standards in a way that would “level the playing field for U.S. businesses and U.S. workers.”
“So I’m confident that the president will be discussing that with his Mexican counterpart as well, so there’s plenty on the agenda that doesn’t involve the Republican presidential nominee,” he said.
The two leaders met one-on-one in Canada during last months’ summit and during a press conference afterward. Obama decried Trump’s derogatory remarks about illegal Mexican immigrants during the campaign.
“All too often we’re hearing rhetoric that ignores the enormous contributions that have been made by Mexican-Americans and the enormous strengths we draw from the relationship,” Obama said at the time.
Nieto also didn’t mention Trump by name, but he clearly denounced the anti-immigration rhetoric from the presumptive GOP nominee.
“Isolationism cannot bring prosperity to a society,” Nieto said. “… We have stressed the importance and relevance of working as a team and standing together.”
