“Trump just failed his first foreign policy test,” tweeted Hillary Clinton after Donald Trump returned from his meeting with the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto. Actually, the opposite is true: Trump was smart to accept Peña Nieto’s invitation to Mexico City, and smarter still to comport himself like the anti-Trump. While Clinton was contending with another revelation about her State Department e-mails, the leader of Mexico was treating her opponent like a potential president.
Whatever effect this week’s optics may yield—Donald Trump representing the United States abroad, Hillary Clinton’s surrogates sounding suitably churlish—the episode reminds me of an earlier moment in relations with our southern neighbor.
I would be the last person to compare Trump to Ronald Reagan. But it is often forgotten that the election of Reagan to the presidency in 1980 was regarded by our chattering classes as a national embarrassment: The United States would now be governed—America would now be represented abroad—by an unlettered grade-B Hollywood actor with Birchite connections among sinister right-wing millionaires.
During the transition period between his election and swearing-in, while Americans were being held hostage in Tehran, Reagan was careful to avoid (in the words of the New York Times) “not to be seen conducting foreign policy while awaiting his inauguration.” The West German chancellor had paid a courtesy call on the president-elect in Washington, but Reagan was otherwise circumspect. With one brilliant exception: Early in January 1981, he crossed the border into Mexico at Ciudád Juárez to meet with its then-president, José López Portillo.
Historically, Mexican leaders had always journeyed to Washington to meet the new president, and so Reagan’s reciprocal gesture was unprecedented. Moreover, while the press of the day was preoccupied with Reagan’s intentions in war-torn El Salvador, he was careful to say nothing of substance during his visit with López Portillo. For Reagan, the meeting was entirely symbolic. So symbolic, indeed, that he presented López Portillo with a case of California wine and an elegant hunting rifle from his personal collection.
I can still remember the horror and consternation among my journalistic colleagues. Not only had our bumptious new commander-in-chief failed to say anything of substance about El Salvador, but he had nullified whatever his visit had accomplished by handing the dignified Mexican president a gun, the visible emblem of American violence and oppression.
Except, of course, that’s not the way the Mexicans (or, especially, López Portillo) saw it. The Mexican media were impressed not only by Reagan’s cross-border gesture and statesmanlike bromides, but by the photo op that seemed to summarize the occasion: Reagan is presenting his rifle to López Portillo, who handles it with the satisfaction and gratitude of an avid hunter.
Trump might not have pulled off a similar coup with Peña Nieto, but this particular round goes to him.
