WASHINGTON — The dark vision of the United States under siege described by Donald Trump in his acceptance speech for the Republican presidential nomination does not mesh with reality, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday.
Obama noted that the “birds were chirping and the sun was out” for most U.S. citizens after Trump’s Thursday night speech, which expounded on the threats to the United States from illegal immigrants, Islamic State militants, and race-related violence.
“This idea that America is somehow on the verge of collapse, this vision of violence and chaos everywhere, doesn’t really jibe with the experience of most people,” Obama said at a White House news conference after meeting with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
Obama said the violent crime rate in the United States has been lower during his 7.5 years in office than any time during the last three or four decades, despite an “uptick” in murders in some cities this year, and the recent high-profile killings of black men and police officers.
The timing of Obama’s quickly arranged short meeting with Peña Nieto presented both leaders with a convenient platform from which to criticize Trump.
Just three weeks ago, Obama — who has six months left in the White House — invited the Mexican president to visit one last time before the U.S. president leaves on Jan. 20.
Trump has pledged to build a wall at the Mexico border to keep out illegal immigrants and drugs, and to force Mexico to pay for it.
The New York businessman has also promised to slap tariffs on some U.S. products made in Mexico, and seek radical changes or even discard the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Peña Nieto was first to mention Trump, but said he respected both Trump and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and would work with constructively and in good faith with whoever wins the Nov. 8 election.
In March, Peña Nieto likened Trump’s “strident tone” to the ascent of dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. But he said on Friday that he had never pointed the finger at any of the candidates, saying that anything he had said had been taken out of context.
And he stressed that the two nations’ futures were closely bound.
“The closeness between the United States and Mexico is more than a relationship between governments. It’s a solid and unbreakable relationship between millions of people who live in both nations,” Peña Nieto said.
Obama said the rate of illegal immigration is down from past decades, and praised Mexico for helping to address a flood of migrants fleeing Central America and for work on drug trafficking.
“A Mexico that has a healthy economy, a Mexico that can help us build stability and security in Central America, that’s going to do a lot more to solve any migration crisis or drug trafficking problem than a wall,” Obama said.
Obama and Peña Nieto praised the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal as addressing some of the criticisms of NAFTA. Both Trump and Clinton have said they oppose the TPP, which has yet to be ratified by the U.S. Congress.
“There are going to be different visions about where we should go as a country,” Obama said, running down a list of economic issues facing the nation.
“But we’re not going to make good decisions based on fears that don’t have a basis in fact,” he said.
AYESHA RASCOE
ROBERTA RAMPTON
