NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — More than 2,000 miles from Mexican airspace, Donald Trump took yet another knock at America’s neighbor to the south Thursday, quipping that a plane flying over his campaign stop could be a Mexican jet “getting ready to attack.”
The billionaire Republican, campaigning to become America’s commander-in-chief, made the remark while addressing voters in northeastern Manchester, New Hampshire.
The plane interrupted Trump as he told attendees that trade deals had sucked US manufacturing jobs to Mexico and elsewhere, and praised Mexico’s leaders as “so much smarter.”
“In fact that could be a Mexican plane up there, they’re getting ready to attack,” he quipped, pointing to a jet flying above the outdoor event.
Trump threw his hat into the presidential race last June, promising to crack down on illegal immigration and insulting Mexican immigrants by calling them rapists, criminals and drug dealers.
He upended the US political establishment by snatching the Republican crown from more seasoned rivals. As the party’s presumptive presidential candidate, he is now hurtling towards a November election against his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.
Mexico has reacted with outrage to Trump and his demand that it pay for a wall that he wants to build on the border to stop undocumented immigration.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has compared Trump’s rhetoric to the rise of European dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
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