In his usual crass fashion, rather than focusing on the catastrophic hurricane that was hitting Houston, Trump spent his presidential energy on Sunday tweeting about how Mexico is going to pay for the wall. "With Mexico being one of the highest crime Nations in the world, we must have THE WALL. Mexico will pay for it through reimbursement/other."
And how did Mexico respond? "The Mexican government takes this opportunity to express its full solidarity with the people and government of the United States as a result of the damages caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, and expresses that it has offered to provide help and cooperation to the US government in order to deal with the impact of this natural disaster — as good neighbors should always do in trying times."
This puts Trump in an awkward spot.
"If he were to accept aid, he could be accused of hypocrisy over his stance on Mexico. But should he refuse, he could be seen as acting callously while Texans suffer," according to The Independent.
At least some Harvey victims are frustrated with Trump's Sunday tweeting. According to Huffington Post:
Kyle Souder, a 22-year-old student at the University of Houston whose car was flooded, said he was frustrated with the president for tweeting about the border wall as the hurricane spread through Texas. “Mexico sent their own people to help during Katrina and you want to tweet this Shit right now?” Souder tweeted at Trump on Sunday.
“I feel like we do need foreign aid,” Souder told the HuffPost on Monday. “We’re completely underwater.”
The US hasn't yet decided whether it will accept Mexico's offer or not, but “Our offering is open and permanent,” Carlos Sada, Mexico’s undersecretary for North America, told the Huffington Post.
Trump is visiting Houston today.
