Mexico's President Pushes Ahead with Trump Trip – But Is It Worth the Risk?
Mexico's President Pushes Ahead with Trump Trip – But Is It Worth the Risk?
"A lot of his supporters are going to say: ‘He’s doing this to protect us, he’s doing this for Mexico'-and then they are going to go about their lives," said AS/COA's Carin Zissis about AMLO's visit to the United States.
He presents himself as Mexico’s low-budget president: a cost-cutting commander-in-chief who has taken the presidential jet out of service and drives a seven-year-old saloon car.
But when Andrés Manuel López Obrador sets off – economy class – to Washington on Tuesday to meet Donald Trump many believe he will be making a high-stakes gamble, more characteristic of his casino-building host than Mexico’s famously austere leader...
“He understands something about his supporters that no one else does – and the truth is that’s because he’s shown up and talked to them,” said Carin Zissis, the Mexico-based editor of the Americas Society and Council of the Americas website.
“I think a lot of his supporters are going to say: ‘He’s doing this to protect us, he’s doing this for Mexico’ - and then they are going to go about their lives,” added Zissis, who thought Biden would also be unperturbed.
“They might not like Trump … but I think they trust Amlo enough to say: ‘He’s doing this for good reasons, we support him’.”...
