Vicente Fox was the president of Mexico for six years, starting in 2000.
He says Donald Trump should not insult Mexicans during his campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.
Trump says he will build a wall between the United States and Mexico. And he says he will get Mexico to pay for it if he becomes president.
People think the cost of the wall could be greater than $1 billion.
Trump also says he plans to deport Mexicans who are not in the U.S. legally. He also wants to deport children born to undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
In response to Trump’s claims, Fox recently told Fusion TV: “I’m not going to pay for that [expletive] wall.” An expletive is a curse or swear word.
Fox says he is surprised Trump won the votes of 46 percent of the Hispanics who voted in the recent Nevada caucus.
Felipe Calderon followed Fox as Mexico’s president. They both say they are concerned about the anti-Mexican sentiment Trump is stirring up.
Calderon told The Washington Post the wall would be “useless” and said “we won’t pay a cent for that stupid wall.”
Calderon also noted that Trump is ignoring recent statistics from the Pew Research Center that show more Mexicans are returning home than entering the United States in the five years ending in 2014.
Calderon says the fact that Trump is ignoring those statistics shows that he is “an ignorant man.”
Trump responded to Fox’s comments, using Twitter to say that the former president should apologize for using bad language.
Fox says he will not apologize.
“He’s the one who should apologize,” Fox says.
I’m Dan Friedell.
Dan Friedell wrote this story for VOA Learning English. His report was based on stories from The Washington Post and Agence France-Presse. Kathleen Struck was the editor.
What do you think of the war of words between the Mexican presidents and Donald Trump? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
Words in This Story
deport – v. to force (a person who is not a citizen) to leave a country
stir up – v. to cause (someone) to feel a strong emotion and a desire to do something
ignorant – adj. lacking knowledge or information
expletive – n. a word or phrase that people sometimes say when they are angry or in pain, especially one that is considered offensive
