Mexican official ousted after role in Trump visit appointed foreign minister

A Mexican official who resigned in September after helping set up Donald Trump’s visit there will now serve as the country’s foreign minister, Bloomberg reports.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto appointed Luis Videgaray to the position Wednesday. The appointment represents a significant reversal of fortunes for Videgaray, a Peña Nieto ally who had once been seen as a potential presidential hopeful himself.

Peña Nieto said relations with the incoming administration would be his priority.

“With the change in government in the United States on Jan. 20, the instruction to Secretary Videgaray is to accelerate dialogue, contacts, so that, from the first day of the administration, the bases for a constructive work relationship can be set,” he said in a press conference.

Videgaray resigned from his post as finance minister in September following widespread anger and dismay from both the Mexican public, politicians and some in Peña Nieto’s administration over Trump’s visit.

Videgaray allegedly arranged the meeting through a mutual friend with Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Trump had pledged to make Mexico pay for a border wall and called Mexican immigrants to the U.S. criminals and rapists during his campaign.

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Despite those remarks, Peña Nieto received Trump at the presidential residence, and the ensuing controversy left him little choice but to dismiss Videgaray, his closest political ally. 

The visit was described by one Mexican pundit as the “biggest humiliation” for a Mexican president in his own country in decades, according to the New York Times, while another compared the visit to former British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s meeting with Hitler.

After Videgaray resigned, Trump tweeted that he was a “wonderful man” and that Mexico and the U.S. would have made “wonderful deals together” if he remained in office. But Trump also argued that Videgaray’s resignation proved how successful his trip had been.

Trump started the year making headlines in Mexico, tweeting that he would levy tariffs on cars produced in the country by General Motors.

Rival automaker Ford later announced the cancellation of a $1.6 billion investment in Mexico, choosing to invest $700 million in Michigan instead.

The moves caused the Mexican peso to plummet to its lowest historical level.

This story was updated at 4:17 p.m.