Gerald Herbert/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Donald Trump speaks at Joni’s Roast and Ride, a fundraiser for a PAC, at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. On Wednesday, he plans to visit Mexico, a country he has repeatedly savaged since launching his presidential bid.
 

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump travels Wednesday to Mexico, where he’ll meet privately with the president of the country he’s treated as a punching bag since launching his campaign.

The news of the visit was received poorly in Mexico, given that Trump has repeatedly portrayed the country’s people in broad terms as “rapists” and drug-dealing criminals. Historian Enrique Krauze demanded that Trump use the opportunity to apologize for his repeated insults.

Listen @realDonaldTrump, we Mexicans expect nothing less than an apology for calling us “criminals and rapists”.

— Enrique Krauze (@EnriqueKrauze) August 31, 2016

If Trump wanted to be neighborly, here are some other comments that he could apologize for before his visit.

Calling Mexico an ‘enemy’...

Trump’s been known to do this on Twitter. It’s not good for diplomacy.  

When will the U.S. stop sending $’s to our enemies, i.e. Mexico and others.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2014

 ...and ‘not our friend.’ 

I love the Mexican people, but Mexico is not our friend. They’re killing us at the border and they’re killing us on jobs and trade. FIGHT!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 30, 2015

When you love someone, you shouldn’t publicly challenge them to a fight using all caps.  

Insisting that Mexico pay for his border wall.

This is a farcical bit of wishful thinking that no Mexican administration could accept without committing political suicide. Let it go, Trump.

Threatening to seize remittances.

One of the ways Trump has said he’ll compel Mexico to pay for the wall is by seizing remittances, the money that Mexicans living in the U.S. send back to their families. Threatening to steal millions of people’s money is rude, especially when it’s an empty threat ― experts agree that people cut off from wire transfers will simply use other informal means of sending money across borders.  

Praising Ann Coulter. 

.@AnnCoulter has been amazing. We will win and establish strong borders, we will build a WALL and Mexico will pay. We will be great again!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 23, 2016

The right-wing pundit, who wrote a fan book called In Trump We Trust that she may come to regret, has built her career on bashing Latin American immigrants and characterizing Mexico as a horrific glimpse of America’s dystopian future. Renouncing her support would help ease tensions with our southern neighbor.

Backhandedly insulting one of Mexico’s great film directors.

When Alejandro González Iñárritu won the Oscar for best director last year for his film “The Revenant,” Trump had this to say: 

The Oscars were a great night for Mexico & why not—they are ripping off the US more than almost any other nation.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2015

Do the grown-up thing, Trump. Say you’re sorry.

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