Mike Pence Is Throwing A Cinco De Mayo Party, And Twitter Can't Believe It

Donald Trump won't be celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but his VP Mike Pence will, a fact which has caught a lot of people by surprise.

Mike Pence will be hosting a celebration a day before the Mexican holiday, Politico reported.

On Twitter, the news prompted a wave of reactions that ranged from disbelief to sarcasm.

It's clear why the news drew cynical reactions.

Since the day Trump announced his presidential candidacy, and all the way through his first 100 days in the White House, the president has been dogged by criticism of his rhetoric towards Mexicans.

Trump famously launched his "Make America Great Again" campaign with a rant that asserted illegal immigration from Mexico was bringing in rapists, among other things.

Trump said back in June 2015,

When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. ... They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

Of course, there's also the president's proposed border wall and his comments about a Mexican-American judge.

Then there's the fact that Trump has positioned himself as a president prepared to take a much more aggressive stance to immigration than his predecessors.

So the idea that the Trump administration would acknowledge host a Cinco de Mayo celebration -- which, as Politico noted, has been used by past presidents as an opportunity to celebrate ties with Mexico -- was bound to be an awkward one.

In fact, a separate report on Wednesday, published by The Hill, noted that President Trump would not continue the over decade-long tradition of holding a Cinco de Mayo celebration at the White House.

However, while Trump won't be celebrating, the Trump administration will, via Pence's reception at the Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Trump, meanwhile, will be visiting New York City, where he will meet Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull aboard the USS Intrepid.

Citations: Pence will host White House Cinco de Mayo party (Politico), What Donald Trump has said about Mexico and vice versa (CNN)