Trump Makes Another Offensive Comment About Mexico

During a campaign rally in New Hampshire on Thursday, Donald Trump joked about Mexico in the most offensive way. As Trump was complaining about Mexican political leaders outsmarting their American counterparts, a plane flew overhead. This prompted the presumptive Republican nominee to quip that it “could be a Mexican plane up there,” and that “they’re getting ready to attack.” Has Trump managed to damage America’s foreign relations without even being in office?

That’s too soon to say, of course, but Trump’s Mexican plane comment charted new ground for The Donald. It wasn’t the first time he made incendiary claims about America’s southern neighbor, of course: During his campaign announcement a year ago, Trump alleged that Mexico was intentionally sending drug dealers and rapists across the border into the United States.

But as terrible as that comment was, this recent one was worse. This time, Trump was suggesting that Mexico’s antipathy towards the United States is so great that it might actually launch airstrikes on American soil, as opposed to simply sending criminals across the border. It’s a preposterous suggestion, as the two countries have been allies for quite some time, but it nevertheless represented an uptick in Trump’s anti-Mexican hostility, albeit an incremental one.

All of this comes against the backdrop of Trump’s widely-condemned remarks about Gonzalo Curiel, the judge presiding over a case involving Trump University. Trump said that Curiel couldn’t possibly be impartial in his decision making because his “Mexican heritage” presented “an inherent conflict of interest.” House Speaker Paul Ryan called it “the textbook definition of a racist comment,” though he said that he’s still supporting Trump regardless.

There are two takeaways here. For one, Trump’s history of racist and pseudo-racist comments against Mexicans is so well-documented that when he makes a “joke,” like the one about the plane, it’s impossible to interpret it in anything but the worst possible light. And nor should we: Trump does not deserve the benefit of the doubt at this point. It’s notable that he still hasn’t retracted or apologized for his comments about Curiel.

More importantly, it demonstrates yet again that Trump, despite many predictions to the contrary, is not “moderating,” or “pivoting” his rhetoric in preparation for the general election. No, he’s going to keep on being the only person he knows how to be, the kind of person who sees a plane flying overhead and immediately thinks, “Mexico is attacking us.”