MEXICO CITY _ President Donald Trump dumped the gloomy message of his inauguration speech in favor of a more optimistic tone in his address to Congress Tuesday night.
South of the border, many were watching closely.
Mexico, after all, has much at stake as Trump considers major changes on trade and immigration. Just look at the Mexican peso, which fluctuates daily depending on what the U.S. president says.
Mexican political analysts took note of Trump's more hopeful tone. Gone was his pugnacious vow to put "America first." And while Trump spoke of creating a "merit-based" immigration system, he did not threaten mass deportations.
But some warned Mexicans not to be fooled by Trump's more "presidential" presentation.
"The ideas of Trump's speech are the same, but the tone is different _ it is presidential," said Mexican political analyst Javier Tello in a television interview Wednesday. He cautioned Mexicans not to trust Trump.
"Trump's ideology remains nationalistic, both economically and culturally," Tello said. "It is still closed, it is still nativist."
Many took note of Trump's emphasis on victims of crimes committed by immigrants in the country illegally. In his speech, Trump highlighted several such crimes, and he encouraged members of Congress to stand and clap for several family members of the victims who were seated alongside Trump's family.
"Trump's vision is simple: to be an immigrant is to be criminal, period," tweeted Carlos Bravo Regidor, a professor at Mexico's Center for Research and Teaching Economics.
Trump's strategy, Bravo said, is "to criminalize foreigners, and to assume the position as a victim in front of the rest of the world."
Trump's announcement that he was creating a "victims of immigration crime engagement office," or VOICE, also drew criticism in Mexico.
"Remember this," said political analyst Alberto Serdan. "It will be the vehicle of racism, particularly against Mexicans and Muslims in the United States."
