# Donald Trump Threatens to Send Troops to Mexico **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 2, 2017, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788 "2017-02-02T00:07:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/61 "2017-02-04T02:19:35Z")
Nah. War with Mexico is outside the realm of possibility. It’s about as unlikely as war with Canada. Two more stable alliances have rarely been seen in this world. ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/62 "2017-02-04T02:27:22Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Nah. War with Mexico is outside the realm of possibility. It’s about as unlikely as war with Canada. Two more stable alliances have rarely been seen in this world. If the great man theory of history is bunk, you are right. And I usually think it is bunk when it comes to the causes of war. But Trump just could be an exception. Ulysses S. Grant on the first US-Mexico War: > [@](#): > > For myself, I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. > . . . > > The Southern rebellion was largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions. The scary thing is that, in 1846-47, he fought bravely and effectively on the side he knew was wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/63 "2017-02-04T12:50:48Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Did it occur to anyone that if Trump invaded and occupied part of Mexico they might just say the Hell with it, and unilaterally cede the occupied territories to the US. The US could end up with a bunch of new land controlled by drug lords, and a bunch of new citizens after the border crossed them. 😛 If we go all the way down to Panama, the cost of The Wall will be a lot less. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/64 "2017-02-04T13:40:20Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > If we go all the way down to Panama, the cost of The Wall will be a lot less. - And\* take back the canal! We’ve been taken advantage of by those Panamanians long enough! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/65 "2017-02-04T14:09:37Z")
It’s time there was some pandemonium among the Panamanians! ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/66 "2017-02-04T17:10:49Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > You assume that Donald Trump is capable of humor. Humor like Jon Stewart? No, he’s not capable of that. But like an online troll, he’s capable of taking delight in watching someone else fume, and he doesn’t appear to have a lot of respect for Nieto. He might have done it for the lulz, or perhaps he did nothing of the sort but then either Trump or Bannon had a “leaker” plant the story that it had been said. There’s a lot of misdirection going on within this administration. Some of it is probably bumbling and getting used to running the show, but some of it is probably quite intentional, diverting attention from other items on their agenda. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/67 "2017-02-04T17:53:53Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > If the great man theory of history is bunk, you are right. And I usually think it is bunk when it comes to the causes of war. But Trump just could be an exception. > > Ulysses S. Grant on the first US-Mexico War: > > The scary thing is that, in 1846-47, he fought bravely and effectively on the side he knew was wrong. There was however the realization that the South was not going to remain there, their designs according to some historians was to continue to expand by first taking over the rest of Mexico and then Latin America. Mexico then would had helped the North more if it wasn’t for their own civil unrest and the French invading. What happened was that the North helped Juarez against the imperialists, but not much as the Union feared that England or France would help the Confederacy so they could not show that Mexico was being help in the open. But once the USA Civil war was over: > **[Mexico Benefitted From the Civil War](https://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2013/07/02/who-won-the-civil-war/mexico-benefitted-from-the-civil-war)** > > American money and "decommissioned" guns helped Mexico’s liberals retake the country from Napoleon and restore Benito Juárez to power. > [@](#): > > But Union victory in 1865 meant a more confrontational policy toward the French and an end to the arms ban. Retired U.S. officers partnered with Juárez to organize volunteers, raise capital and ship huge amounts of newly idled war material south (all for handsome fees). Ulysses S. Grant dispatched troops to the U.S.-Mexican border where they gamely menaced Maximilian’s forces and conveniently left tens of thousands of “decommissioned” guns for Juárez’s men. > > The pressure convinced Napoleon to begin withdrawing his troops in 1866. American money and guns helped Mexico’s liberals retake the country step by step, and they finally captured and executed Maximilian in June 1867. Restored to power, Benito Juárez and his successors consolidated a sweeping program of economic, social and institutional reform that would profoundly shape his country’s future. I think that for U. S. Grant that was a good way to make some amends. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/68 "2017-02-06T20:07:53Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > When I saw the “Red Dawn” movies back in the day (the first on Blockbuster Penny Night, the other when it was on cable) I always thought that the premise was stupid and ridiculously flawed. > “A Mexico that is militarily allied with Russia or China? Why would they ever do that or need to do that? Wouldn’t a better movie be about the DIP-SHIT that would have let that happen or made that possible? Just how Stupid can Hollywood be?” > > But then Trump became President. > Lies and Stupidity became the new ‘Business as Usual’. > > I guess now, decades later, I can finally see how that just _might_ be possible… No Mexican’s in that movie that I recall. Cubans, and maybe Nicaraguans (per Wikipedia). No Mexican’s. Reminds me of a Hill Street Blues episode where they were having a luncheon to honor the Latino lieutenant. They served tacos. He plaintively said “I’m from Nicaragua. Can I get a steak?” ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/69 "2017-02-06T22:10:05Z")
Very cool of HSB’s to call attention to that. Tacos, tortillas, are 100% Mexican. The common thought being, all brown skinned people eat tacos. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/70 "2017-02-06T22:27:58Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > Very cool of HSB’s to call attention to that. > > Tacos, tortillas, are 100% Mexican. > > The common thought being, all brown skinned people eat tacos. Well…something like a tortilla is pretty common world wide (brown skin optional), but tacos are pretty well established as being Mexican (though something like a tortas is pretty common). Tacos themselves, contrary to what ‘common thought’ is, are pretty recent invention and, IIRC, comes from silver miners in Mexico in the late 19th century. Supposedly the tacos look like the gun powder wrapped packages they used to open up the mines. Oh, and I think white people eat more tacos than Mexicans do…sort of like pizza and Italians. 😛 So, like with other cultural foods, you see (American) tacos everywhere these days, just like pizza and Chinese food (made in the American style)…including a lot of places in central and south America. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2017, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/71 "2017-02-06T23:01:48Z")
With all due respect, the corn tortilla originated with the Maya. [http://www.akingslife.com/2012/02/the-secret-of-mayan-corn-tortillas/](http://www.akingslife.com/2012/02/the-secret-of-mayan-corn-tortillas/) > [@](#): > > Mayans cook their corn in lime (derived from limestone) water which improves the nutritional value of the corn. It softens the kernel exterior, releases the germ, and converts nutrients such as niacin, B vitamins, and amino acids into a form easily absorbed by the human body. Long before nutritional research was available, the Mayans had figured it out. Cooking the corn in the lime solution also adds calcium, essential for strong bones. The Maya did not eat with forks or spoons. The tortilla was the vehicle for delivering the food to the mouth. Fold a tortilla, and you have a spoon for soups. Tear a tortilla and pinch some beans, or meat, if you have some. And later the taco evolved. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2017, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/72 "2017-02-07T00:00:12Z")
> [@harmonicamoon](#): > > With all due respect, the corn tortilla originated with the Maya. > > [http://www.akingslife.com/2012/02/the-secret-of-mayan-corn-tortillas/](http://www.akingslife.com/2012/02/the-secret-of-mayan-corn-tortillas/) > > The Maya did not eat with forks or spoons. The tortilla was the vehicle for delivering the food to the mouth. Fold a tortilla, and you have a spoon for soups. Tear a tortilla and pinch some beans, or meat, if you have some. > > And later the taco evolved. Hominy, the Terrible Thing with corn and limestone. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788/73 "2017-02-16T19:07:11Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > “`You have a bunch of bad hombres down there,” Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt seen by the AP. “You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.'” > > This sound very much like something that was made up. Not that Trump isn’t stupid enough to say somethin g like this, but it’s just too pat, too phony sounding. It reads precisely like someone writing something that they want to sound like Trump’s words, but aren’t actually talented enough to make it sound like Trump - note the prominent use of the term “bad hombres,” but the fact that the passage otherwise doesn’t really follow his typical structure or cadence - there is no repetition, no use of superlatives, no adjectives except for “bad.” That’s not how he speaks. Just a bump because IMHO:… Christ on a crack cocaine cracker! I just heard in his just ongoing news conference tell reporters and the world how shameful they should be because secret conversations like his calls to Mexico and Australia were leaked! That what he had talked before with the president of Mexico and the Australian premier was almost instantly revealed. The problem here is that, for all we knew so far, those leaks remained unconfirmed officially so they could continue to be plausibly denied. Trump just validated for many reporters the many deep throats that are in his White House and/or the ones in Mexico, Australia and others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/donald-trump-threatens-to-send-troops-to-mexico/778788.md?page=3)