MEXICO CITY (AP) — On Feb. 19, 2016, at a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, then-candidate Donald Trump gave a stump speech in which he railed against American jobs moving to Mexico: "We lose our jobs, we close our factories, Mexico gets all of the work," he said. "We get nothing."
That same day a law firm in Mexico City quietly filed on behalf of his company for trademarks on his name that would authorize the Trump brand, should it choose, to set up shop in a country with which he has sparred over trade, migration and the planned border wall.
The Trump trademarks have now been granted by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property, or IMPI for its initials in Spanish. Records show the last three were approved Feb. 21, just over a month after Trump took office, and a fourth was granted last Oct. 6, about a month before the U.S. election.
@AP Trump's trademark win in Mexico for his own private profit must be why the State Dept was cut out of meeting with Mexico's FM on Thurs. pic.twitter.com/KBKmCjAe8F— meta (@metaquest) March 12, 2017
"Thurs." refers to this "off-camera press briefing" (by phone):
OPERATOR: Thank you. Tracy Wilkinson with Los Angeles Times, please, go ahead. Your line is open.When I first glanced at this exchange on Twitter, I read it as no meetings at all—I assumed Videgaray had come to D.C., but had failed to stay at the right hotel. I stand corrected; it's a "smart businessman" who recognizes diplomacy is too good a racket to be left to mere diplomats.
QUESTION: Hi. Yes, thank you. Hi, Mark. I see that the foreign minister of Mexico is in town, Luis Videgaray, meeting with – according to the Mexicans – Kushner, Gary Cohn, and McMaster. Is there no State Department meeting with him? And if not, why not?
MR TONER: Tracy, good question. We'll take that and get back to you. I was unaware that he was – the foreign minister was in town. And I'm not sure – I can't speak to whether there's going to be any meetings at the State Department at any level. I'll take the question.
On the other hand, Mexico has had to cancel sugar exports to the US, because "there's no one to negotiate with" at Commerce.
Mexico has been the US's largest source of sugar; immanent shortages and increased prices are sure to hurt Trump voters the most. But, perhaps this is finally cause for gloating that's free of the usual moral dilemma (I'd be glad if Trump voters lost health care, if it weren't for everyone else having to suffer... dilemma.
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