President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE on Sunday night congratulated the winner of Mexico's presidential election, a left-wing populist who has vowed to take a tougher stance against the U.S. president. Andrés Manuel López Obrador beat out the candidate representing the ruling PRI party on Sunday amid growing discontent over the country's rampant crime and corruption. A third-time presidential candidate, López Obrador has publicly derided Trump's plans to build a wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico and has said he will demand respect from the White House. ADVERTISEMENT Trump, who has had a tense relationship with current Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, offered kind words to López Obrador after his resounding victory over PRI candidate Jose Antonio Meade. "Congratulations to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on becoming the next President of Mexico. I look very much forward to working with him," Trump tweeted. "There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!" Relations between the two countries have taken a dramatic turn for the worse under Trump, due in large part to the president's frequent attacks on immigrants from Central America and his vow to build a wall and have Mexico pay for it. Trump also announced new tariffs on Mexican imports, which were promptly answered by Mexico with corresponding retaliatory measures on U.S. goods. Trump meanwhile has frequently railed against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he has threatened to scrap if Mexico doesn't agree to concessions imposed upon it by the U.S. The two countries, along with Canada, have held multiple rounds of talks on the deal. The president on Sunday said he would wait until after the midterm elections in November to sign a new NAFTA deal.<doc-sep>Mexico’s leftist president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has expressed his desire to build bridges with the US as Mexico’s new leader, has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump since the US commander-in-chief launched his presidential campaign. Mr Lopez Obrador, known as his initials AMLO, declared victory after clinching a landslide win. The 64-year-old president-elect won with more than 53 percent of the vote campaigning on promises to eradicate Mexico’s violence and corruption – an issue voters perceived went unchecked under outgoing President Enrique Pena Nieto. Mexico’s new leader and former mayor of Mexico City has certainly not minced words when he’s previously addressed President Trump’s divisive campaign rhetoric promising to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and make Mexico pay for it. After the 2017 Inauguration, the 64-year-old president-elect published a book titled, Oye, Trump! (Listen up, Trump! ), featuring a compilation of speeches he made on a tour in the US. In one of Mr Lopez Obrador’s speeches he said, “Trump and his advisers speak of the Mexicans the way Hitler and the Nazis referred to the Jews, just before undertaking the infamous persecution and the abominable extermination." Mr Lopez Obrador also once referred to Mr Trump as “erratic” and “arrogant” at a rally in Mexico City, according to NPR. He reportedly criticised Mr Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall adding, “and we won't allow his wall or mistreatment of our fellow migrants in the US.” Mr Lopez Obrador told a rally of people in Los Angeles last year that Mr Trump’s pledge to build a wall, “goes against humanity.” “When they want to build a wall to segregate populations, or when the word ‘foreigner’ is used to insult, denigrate and discriminate against our fellow human beings, it goes against humanity, it goes against intelligence and against history,” he said. In an op-ed published in The Washington Post last year, Mr Lopez Obrador referred to Mr Trump's border wall plans as xenophobic and racist. “On Nov. 9 2016 it became clear that the Mexico-U.S. bilateral relationship had entered a rocky phase," he wrote. "This was due not only to the incoming Trump administration’s policy of xenophobia and racism and the threat to block trade, but also to the arbitrary and abusive plans to force Mexicans to pay for a border wall..." A few months prior to that, the Mexican president-elect filed a complaint with the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights against Mr Trump’s planned border wall with efforts to “... protect immigrants from the harassment they are suffering since [Mr] Trump took office.” Although Mr Lopez Obrador is a celebrated leader of the left, he has interestingly been compared with Mr Trump for his nationalist, populist and impulsive tendencies. Mr Trump congratulated the Mexican president-elect and leader of the Movement for National Regeneration (MORENA) party on Twitter. “Congratulations to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on becoming the next President of Mexico,” he wrote. “I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!” Mr Lopez Obrador has publicly expressed his plans to foster a friendly relationship with US but he has also made it clear he would be no pushover to the Trump administration. During a presidential debate in May, the president-elect declared that Mexico’s relationship with the US would not be one of “subordination” should he win the election. “I want a friendly relationship with the government of the United States, but not one of subordination,” he said. “Mexico is a free country, it is a sovereign nation. We will not be subject to any foreign government.”<doc-sep>
Electoral Officals have indicated that left-wing candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador had won Mexico's Presidential Elections with a handsome margin of 53% of votes. Obrador, a former mayor of Mexico City, who was the front-runner before the country went to vote, was given that same margin in exit polls according to one survey by Parametria. His competitor Jose Antonio Meade, a former finance minister and candidate for the centre-right Institutional Revolutionary Party, has already conceded defeat in a speech to his supporters. "He will have the responsibility to conduct the executive power, and for the good of Mexico I wish him well," Meade said. Soon after Meade's speech, Ricardo Anaya Cortes, who led a coalition of parties and was considered the strongest challenger to Obrador, also threw in the towel. Jaime Rodríguez Calderon, known as El Bronco, also conceded defeat. The CNN quoted Obrador as saying, "Today, they have recognized our victory." He is known by his initials AMLO, and he spoke to a crowd of jubilant supporters at an event in Mexico City late Sunday local time after the preliminary results were declared. Sitting President Enrique Peña Nieto called Lopez Obrador shortly beforehand to congratulate him and pledged to help him carry out an orderly transition. Within hours of his opponents conceding defeat, U.S. President Donald Trump congratulated Obrador in a tweet, saying he looked forward to working with him. "There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico," Trump said. Congratulations to Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on becoming the next President of Mexico. I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 2, 2018 Obrador will have to contend with Trump's threats to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and his calls for the construction of a border wall between the two countries, among other divisive talking points. During his campaign, Lopez Obrador has promised to pushed back against plans for a border wall in a book he wrote titled "Oye Trump, or "Listen Trump." He also pledged to propose to keep NAFTA. He has been the candidate most critical of Donald Trump and has said he will make the U.S. president "see reason". Sunday's election is the culmination of one of Mexico's deadliest campaigns in decades with more than 130 political candidates and party workers killed as candidates promised to crack down on drug cartels and gang violence in the country. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 02, 2018 10:15 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).