Trump Calls Resignation of Mexico Minister a Campaign Victory

The US dollar climbed against the Mexican peso on Wednesday on news that Mexican Finance Minister Luis Videgaray has resigned.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto came under widespread criticism last week for inviting Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to Mexico, without demanding that Trump apologize for comments suggesting Mexican migrants are criminals or “rapists”.

Treasury Ministry spokesman Claudia Algorri said Videgaray presented his resignation to Pena Nieto on Wednesday.

Two people familiar with the matter said that Videgaray, who had once been one of the favorites to succeed Pena Nieto, will be replaced by Jose Antonio Meade, a former finance minister now serving as the minister for social development.

With economic growth sluggish, the president’s popularity at record lows and tensions palpable between the finance minister and other Cabinet members, rumors of Videgaray’s impending departure have bubbled under the surface in Mexico for months.

Videgaray “was the architect” of Trump’s visit, because he was the adviser that Pena Nieto had “the most reliance on, and was closest to”, said columnist and political analyst Raymundo Riva Palacio.

It was Videgaray’s idea to invite Mr. Trump, according to several Mexican news media reports, though Nieto later claimed it was his own. The 48-year-old, who ran Pena Nieto’s election campaign, was widely seen as the president’s top aide, with a huge influence on a broad swath of policy. Luis Enrique Miranda Nava will take over the social development post. But hours after his meeting with Pena Nieto, he gave a combative speech in Phoenix that struck numerous anti-immigrant themes that have defined his candidacy.

Pena Nieto acknowledged the “enormous indignation” among Mexicans over Trump’s presence in the country and repeated that he told the candidate in person that Mexico would in no way pay for the proposed border wall.

Speaking at a town hall last Thursday where he fielded questions from young people, Pena Nieto sought to defend the decision to invite Trump to visit.

Videgaray in March said during an interview that “there is no scenario in which Mexico will pay for” the wall.

In a recent interview with a United States news network, Clinton said she would not accept the invitation, dealing another blow to Mexico.