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Trump Mexico visit: Luis Videgaray quits as finance minister

One of Nieto’s top lieutenants who advocated for the Trump visit, finance minister Luis Videgaray, stepped down this week amid blowback from Trump’s visit.

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Meade, 47, served as Finance Minister for Pena Nieto’s predecessor Felipe Calderon and began Pena Nieto’s presidency as Mexico’s foreign minister.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump are seen during their joint statement last Wednesday.

Even Trump himself said Videgaray’s resignation was related to his visit.

Pena Nieto called on Meade to continue the government’s policy of fiscal responsibility “to contain and stabilize the growth of the public-sector debt as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP)”.

Trump said at a press conference after the meeting that his demand that Mexico pay for a wall along the border had not been discussed. Videgaray, a former investment banker, has worked for Pena Nieto since the president first became a governor in the State of Mexico in 2005.

Mr Pena Nieto has faced criticism after Mr Trump’s brief visit, with many Mexicans complaining that the president was poorly advised by the people around him.

“He has been an official very committed to Mexico, and very loyal to the president”, Pena Nieto said.

The president said he also told the real-estate magnate in the meeting that Mexico would not pay for the border wall.

Videgaray, who has also been rumoured as a potential 2017 gubernatorial candidate for the ruling party in the state of Mexico, a populous region next to the capital, will not take another public post, a finance ministry spokeswoman said.

Mexico’s independence day is on September 16. Pena Nieto fired back his own tweet saying that would “never” happen.

It was a choking match of sorts between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

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Trump on many occasions throughout his presidential campaign criticized Mexican migrants, describing them as criminals and rapists.

Mexican Finance Secretary Luis Videgaray acknowledged that he had also bought a home from the same contractor two months before Pena Nieto took office in December 2012