They said he couldn’t do it.
They mocked him as “Tariff Man”.
Then…?
He pulled a rabbit out of a hat.
And he did so in less than a week!
Absolutely incredible, but not surprising if you know this wonderful man we have as President! He’s been doing it his whole life!
After using the leverage he had to enact tariffs, President Trump put Mexico on notice that his patience had run out.
He wanted his concessions met, or the tariffs would stay in place. And rise!
And Mexico folded like a cheap suit!
Here was the official announcement:
Praise soared on Twitter for President Trump:
Bloomberg had more on the deal:
President Donald Trump said he would drop plans for tariffs on Mexico that he’d been threatening to impose for the past week after the country promised new steps to stem an influx of illegal migration into the U.S.
“I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico,” Trump said in a tweet Friday night. “The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended.”
Under the deal, Mexico will expand deployment of its national guard throughout the country, prioritizing its southern border, according to a joint statement from the two countries. Asylum seekers who cross into the U.S. will be quickly returned to Mexico where they’ll wait for their claims to be resolved.
Trump’s decision marked a dramatic turnaround after he persistently criticized Mexico for failing to prevent Central American migrants from traversing the country to get to the U.S. The decision marks a victory for Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, whose administration had been pressing Trump to drop the tariff threat.
The deal preempts Trump’s planned 5% tariff on all Mexican imports to the U.S. that the president said could increase to 25% by October.
The decision was welcomed by Republicans and others who warned the tariffs would damage the American economy, hurt job growth and delay or altogether scuttle a trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, which still needs lawmaker ratification. Mexico is the second-biggest source of U.S. imports.
“Mexico came through,” said Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican opposed to the tariffs, in a tweet soon after Trump’s announcement.
Mexico said the deal was reached after several days of talks, including 12 hours of discussions on Friday.
Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said the resolution was fair and balanced and that the U.S. originally had made more sweeping demands than were part of the final deal.
“We reached some middle point,” Ebrard said.
The tariff threat has rattled markets and prompted economists to forecast an increased risk of recession in the U.S., the world’s largest economy, because trade between the U.S. and Mexico is so integrated. An all-out trade war would lower global gross domestic product by 0.8% or $800 billion by mid-2021, according to Bloomberg Economics.
The number of apprehensions and people denied entry along the U.S.-Mexico border has been rising steadily. More than 144,000 people were apprehended after illegally crossing the southern border in May or were refused entry to the U.S., Customs and Border Protection announced on Wednesday. That’s the the most in a single month in at least five years; the number has grown every month since January.
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