MEXICO CITY — Long vilified here as a corrupt oligarch, mega-billionaire Carlos Slim in recent months has become an unlikely champion of Mexico.
The telecommunications mogul has emerged as one of President Trump’s most high-profile antagonists south of the border. As Mr. Trump has cracked down on immigration flows, called for a Mexico-financed wall on the border and blamed Mexico for stealing American jobs, Mr. Slim has trashed the wall and said it’s time for his countrymen to chart their economic future without the U.S.
“Mr. Slim believes that the U.S. president is playing a dangerous game by calling for protectionism at a time when the global economy is opening up,” said Slim spokesman Arturo Elias Ayub. “Meanwhile in Mexico, we see greater opportunities in free trade.”
The 77-year-old recently announced a partnership to build a Mexican-made electric vehicle with Grupo Bimbo, a Mexican company that is the world’s largest bread maker, one that could challenge the U.S. automakers that have set up extensive operations since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994.
After Mr. Trump called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals during the presidential campaign last year, Mr. Slim’s Ora TV network dropped a project with the candidate. Mr. Slim has come under fire for his 17 percent stake in The New York Times, one of the U.S. president’s least-favorite reading options these days.
Not too long ago, it wasn’t nearly so acrimonious.
Mr. Slim dined with Mr. Trump as president-elect, as well as a small number of aides, in December. After the meeting, the Mexican billionaire said he felt reassured despite the sometimes harsh rhetoric of the presidential campaign. “I think that, to put it in cinematographic terms, Trump is not ‘The Terminator’; he’s a negotiator,” Mr. Slim told reporters, while Mr. Trump described the meeting with his fellow billionaire as “a lovely dinner with a wonderful man.”
It’s not clear if Mr. Slim would be so gracious if he sat down with Mr. Trump for dinner now.
In a rare January press conference here, Mr. Slim avoided personal attacks but went after the underpinnings of Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” policies, arguing that “returning to a glorious past of American industry that made them the world leader in the 20th century will not work.”
The Mexican mogul’s fortune has shrunk by $16 billion since Mr. Trump announced his presidential candidacy, according to a Bloomberg ranking. The sharp decline of the Mexican peso in that period was the main source of the loss. Once ranked as the world’s richest man, Mr. Slim now has a fortune worth $51 billion, the sixth-largest in the world.
Surging popularity
But as his fortune has contracted, his popularity has increased because of his outspoken criticisms of Mr. Trump at a time when the government has desperately tried to find a way to keep from burning all bridges with the administration in Washington.
A poll by leading Mexican daily El Universal found that 20 percent of Mexicans view Mr. Slim as best placed to stand up to Mr. Trump, provoking rumors of a presidential bid in July 2018. The magnate has repeatedly denied that he has political ambitions.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s poll numbers are in the tank.
“President Pena Nieto’s unpopularity means he’s been unable to project a sense of national leadership in the face of Trump’s belligerence, while Slim has transformed himself into a kind of statesman who floats above the various political squabbles,” said Diego Enrique Osorno, who wrote a book on the magnate.
Mr. Slim hasn’t avoided criticism on the way to the top, of course.
Critics say Mr. Slim is a great advocate of the free market but owes his fortune to backroom dealings in his shrewd purchase of communications giant Telmex in the 1990s, said Marco Levario Turcott, editor of the Mexican magazine Etcetera and a prominent Slim critic.
The Mexican government at the time was privatizing state-run corporations in sweetheart deals to a handful of magnates. Telmex today controls around 90 percent of Mexican landlines and 80 percent of mobile phone coverage.
“There’s a massive contradiction: He owes his monopoly to corruption and government regulation of the Mexican economy,” said Mr. Levario. “He is a hypocrite.”
Born in a Lebanese immigrant family, Mr. Slim has not been political in the past. He could have spoken out against Mexico’s problems many times but has not, said Mr. Levario.
In a country where 50 percent of citizens live below the poverty line, Mexicans for years paid the highest landline and mobile phone rates in the world thanks to Mr. Slim’s near monopoly. Recent reforms have dropped rates.
“He is treated as a rock star by the Mexican media, yet he never addresses the tough issues, such as corruption, human rights or the detrimental impact his monopoly has had on the country,” Mr. Levario said. “Everything is about growing his business.”
Mr. Slim’s critics have also charged that he acquired Telmex through corrupt dealings with former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Those accusations have never been proved, however. Both parties have denied them.
“Slim was long viewed as a frontman for Carlos Salinas and the administrator of an inefficient and monopolistic company, but more recently he has become a figure whom the majority of Mexicans admire,” said Mr. Osorno.
The admiration could stem from the oligarch’s promotion of Mexico abroad and his resistance to conservative American politicians who might want to brush over Mexicans’ cultural influence in the U.S.
This year, Slim plans to launch a U.S.-based Spanish-language television network called Nuestra Vision, or Our Vision. Mr. Slim’s Grupo Carso conglomerate billed the network as “focused on Mexicans, made by Mexicans and transmitted from Mexico.”
“From now through 2018, I think Slim will be a prominent player in the Trump-Mexico saga,” said Mr. Osorno. “But I’m not sure it’s good for any democracy that a businessman — however well-intentioned — be held in higher esteem than our elected representatives.”
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