Off The Wall

As the U.S. debates sealing off its southern border, former Mexican President Vicente Fox has become an outspoken critic of the plan— and a star on social media

- Robert Valencia

VICENTE FOX “jumped the wall” to come here, he joked to the crowd. It was May 14, and the former president of Mexico was onstage at Cipriani, a restaurant and venue in downtown New York, where he had just received a Webby Award for best internet personality in film and video.

These days, Fox is a celebrity, not just in Mexico but increasingly in America. And his Cipriani speech captured why. Since early 2016, when Donald Trump was still a Republican hopeful, Fox has been one of his most outspoken critics, lambasting the real estate mogul for his desire to wall off the southern U.S. border—and make Mexico pay for it. “I am not paying for that fucken wall,” Fox tweeted last January. Trump’s critics have loved his brash, comedic approach, and his message has catapulted him to social media stardom.

The folksy, mustachioed Fox has always been charismatic. In late 2000, he became president of Mexico, upending 70 years of rule by the country’s Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In one of his first acts as president, he visited his American counterpart, George W. Bush. The two leaders got along well—both are fond of cowboy boots—and pledged to improve trade between the two nations and reform the U.S. immigration system.

Those plans unraveled with the September 11, 2001, attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. Bush became focused on destroying Al-Qaeda, and Fox opposed the 2003 American invasion of Iraq—a move that created tension between the two countries.