'The wall is a hostile act. It's an unfriendly act,' says Mexican senator and presidential contender Armando Rios Piter.

In 2015, during the announcement of his presidential candidacy, Donald Trump made a claim that would come to be one of his most defining campaign promises.

"I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall," Trump told a cheering crowd.

In that same speech, he even accused some Mexican immigrants of being "rapists".

Then, as president, Trump threatened to dissolve the North American Free Trade Agreement before backing down.

Is there a way forward for Mexico with Trump north of the border?

"He has been behaving with a lot of errors and with a lot of volatility regarding his decisions," says Mexican senator and presidential candidate Armando Rios Piter. "The wall is a hostile act. It's an unfriendly act.

"That's the new way of doing politics on the side of Donald Trump."

In this interview, Rios Piter discusses his presidential hopes, violence in Mexico and whether the country is able to defend its interests when it comes to US-Mexico relations.

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Source: Al Jazeera News