--- title: Hillary Clinton Criticizes Donald Trump's Mexico Meeting description: Hillary Clinton criticized Donald Trump's meeting last week with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto as a "diplomatic incident" canonical: https://time.com/4479831/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-mexican-meeting/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-06T12:38:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:45:40.636Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Did Choke' in Meeting with Mexican President og:description: "He didn't know how to even communicate effectively with a head of state" og:url: https://time.com/4479831/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-mexican-meeting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3de41bf8130e1956/6988a4e00b72e33e306eae37/hillary-clinton-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4500 og:image:height: 2531 og:image:alt: US-VOTE-DEMOCRATS-CLINTON og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Did Choke' in Meeting with Mexican President twitter:description: "He didn't know how to even communicate effectively with a head of state" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3de41bf8130e1956/6988a4e00b72e33e306eae37/hillary-clinton-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Did Choke' in Meeting with Mexican President > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 6, 2016 12:38 PM UTC  Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a Labor Day rally on Sept. 5, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks during a Labor Day rally on Sept. 5, 2016 in Cleveland, Ohio. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Sep 6, 2016 12:38 PM UTC In a [new interview](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/clinton-trump-created-diplomatic-incident-mexico-trip/story?id=41876525) on Monday, Hillary Clinton criticized [Donald Trump’s meeting last week](http://time.com/4475088/donald-trump-mexico-enrique-pena-nieto/) with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto as a “diplomatic incident.” “He came out saying one thing, and the Mexican president contradicted him almost immediately,” Clinton said in an [interview with ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/clinton-trump-created-diplomatic-incident-mexico-trip/story?id=41876525), referring to conflicting claims made by Trump and Peña Nieto about their discussion. Trump [said they did not discuss](http://time.com/4475102/donald-trump-enrique-pena-nieto-transcript/) payment for the wall he has promised to build along Mexico’s border, while [Peña Nieto said he told Trump](http://time.com/4475303/enrique-pena-nieto-donald-trump-border-wall/) during the meeting that Mexico has no intention of paying for the wall. “He didn’t raise it, so he did choke. He didn’t know how to even communicate effectively with a head of state. And I think that’s a pretty clear outcome from that trip,” Clinton said. > [](https://twitter.com/GMA/status/773116025889886209) Clinton’s running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, called the trip an “international embarrassment.” “If you’re gonna cave when you’re with an ally, and Mexico’s an ally, what are you gonna do when you’re with an adversary?” Kaine said during the ABC News interview. “You shouldn’t leave the safety of America and our diplomacy in the hands of a rookie who, on his one visit with a foreign leader, has already created kind of an international embarrassment for us.” In his own interview with ABC News on Monday, Trump reiterated his claim that Mexico will pay for the wall and dismissed Clinton’s criticism. “So let me just tell you about choking. I don’t choke. She chokes,” [Trump said](https://twitter.com/GMA/status/773116889383829504). “Look at the deals she’s made. She’s responsible for so many bad things that have happened to our country.” > [](https://twitter.com/GMA/status/773116889383829504) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4479831/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-mexican-meeting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4479831/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-mexican-meeting/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Did Choke' in Meeting with Mexican President","datePublished":"2016-09-06T12:38:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:45:40.636Z","description":"\"He didn't know how to even communicate effectively with a head of state\"","url":"https://time.com/4479831/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-mexican-meeting/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Mexico","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3de41bf8130e1956/6988a4e00b72e33e306eae37/hillary-clinton-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3de41bf8130e1956/6988a4e00b72e33e306eae37/hillary-clinton-trump-mexico.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-VOTE-DEMOCRATS-CLINTON","caption":"US-VOTE-DEMOCRATS-CLINTON","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4479831/hillary-clinton-donald-trump-mexican-meeting/","name":"Hillary Clinton: Donald Trump 'Did Choke' in Meeting with Mexican President"}}]}] ```