President Trump triumphantly praised a deal with Mexico on Friday night but the New York Times reports it really wasn’t anything new:
“The deal to avert tariffs that President Trump announced with great fanfare on Friday night consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions with the United States over the past several months, according to officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations.“
Mexico sending troops to its southern border with Guatemala was agreed to last March, according to the Times. The deal was worked between Kirstjen Nielsen, the former secretary of homeland security, and Olga Sanchez, the Mexican secretary of the interior.
The agreement to allow asylum seekers to remain in Mexico while they awaited their cases was worked out in December.
Nonetheless, Trump hailed the deal writing on Twitter: “Everyone very excited about the new deal with Mexico!”
But was the threat of tariffs real or made up by Donald Trump. From The Times:
Nine days in spring offered a case study in Mr. Trump’s approach to some of the most daunting issues confronting him and the nation: When the goal seems frustratingly out of reach through traditional means, threaten drastic action, set a deadline, demand concessions, cut a deal — real or imagined — avert the dire outcome and declare victory.
As the Times writes, “these are often dramas of his own making.”