Mexican mega-billionaire Carlos Slim will scrap a television project that was working with Donald Trump’s company, he announced through a spokesperson on Monday. The announcement followed a semi-scripted presidential campaign speech on June 16th, in which Donald Trump saying of Mexican immigrants “They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Trump refused calls to apologize for the comments. Two other companies announced the end of their business relationships with Trump ahead of Slim’s announcement, including Univision and NBC, who are refusing to air the the real estate magnate's side project, the Miss Universe Pageant. NBC also said it would stop airing the Miss USA Pageant.
“[Trump’s statements] are totally out of line [...] working with such a [close-minded] person honestly doesn’t seem like it will pan out for us,” said Arturo Elías Ayub, Slim’s son-in-law, according to Reuters, who is also the chairmen of Ora. “We think it’s incredible that someone can think like this in the 21st century and have this racist position.”
How to lose a guy in 10 days?
Mexico’s Miss Universe representatives were some of the first business associate to publicly air their angst with Trump, and Univision dumped him Friday. It was a Latino frenzy to appropriate the billionaire’s celebrity catchphrase from his NBC show The Apprentice, in which he would tell failed reality contestants “You’re Fired.” On Monday, two weeks after Trumps initial comments and a few days after he refused to apologize for them, the disgust went mainstream with a statement from NBC, also cutting ties with Trump “Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants.”
That meant an end to his role on the apprentice. But NBC took it a step further, implying that the show would continue, just not with Trump. To borrow a phrase from Univision host Jorge Ramos, NBC basically said “Trump, you’re fired.”
Latino leaders were not so subtle. Presente.org's Arturo Carmona welcomed the NBC move, and called Trump's comments "toxic discrimination," not just the clownish caracture of a Republican presidential candidate, but symbolic of a wider problem.
"His nauseating remarks about Mexican-American immigrants expose the deep undercurrent of racism and discrimination that Latinos face in America today, discrimination that has real consequences for our families and friends. From racial profiling and brutality from police to pay disparity in the workforce and laws created to make our lives harder from the GOP— the kind of racism espoused by Donald Trump has real consequences in our lives."
“I’m really rich.”
As of press time, Donald Trump had not officially answered Carlos Slim’s slighting. Based on what we saw earlier in the week, it’s not likely to be conciliatory. After all, Trump has basically lashed out at everyone who attacked him. He publicly threatened to sue Univision. He doxed Jorge Ramos, showing his phone number on television. Little it seems, can humble Trump into an apology, or even the silence that some of his Republican colleagues may be secretly praying for. While Trump goes on with his so-called presidential campaign, serious GOP candidates have gone silent over his unpopular comments.
Even during his presidential announcement, Trump seemed more proud of of his wealth (Forbes insists he has $4 billion dollars) than any political accomplishments on his resume (he has few). In his June 16th speech, spent about as much time dreiding Mexicans as he did talking about his own wealth. “I’m really rich,” he said, before rolling out details of his accountants’ estimates his current wealth, debt and projected earnings. He estimated his wealth to be between $8 billion and $9 billion
“I'm not doing that to brag, because you know what? I don't have to brag,” he said.
What could possibly humble Trump into silence this time? Perhaps the only power that Trump seems to respect: wealth. Carlos Slim, who is Mexican, has an estimated wealth of $71 billion. Forbes ranks him second only to Bill Gates in wealthy, a slot ahead of investor Warren Buffett. Could Slim be one of those Mexicans that Trump assumes is a “good person?”
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