Donald Trump’s eleventh-hour trade war with Canada and Mexico momentarily scrambled the U.S. economy in exchange for, apparently, nothing that America’s two neighbors weren’t already likely to offer.
Trump temporarily backed down Monday from imposing a 25 percent tariff hike on goods from Mexico after speaking with the nation’s leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum. In exchange for the dropped tariffs, Sheinbaum agreed to send 10,000 members of the country’s National Guard to deter drug trafficking between the two nations. But journalists were quick to point out that previous administrations had been able to get Mexico to send more troops and money without the volatile economic threat of tariffs.
“It seems like the trick to negotiating with Trump is to realize he doesn’t have any idea what the current facts are,” posted Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell on BlueSky. “‘Oh you want 10,000 troops?’ says world leader who already deployed 15K. ‘Great 10k it is.’”
Issuing 10,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border is almost routine at this point for America’s southern neighbor. In 2019, Mexico sent 15,000 troops to the border, and sent another 10,000 in 2021 to help with migration. In 2022, Mexico agreed to invest $1.5 billion to help Joe Biden upgrade the border, and in 2023 implemented 15 administrative actions to assist in America’s deportation of migrants.
Trump was also roasted for his lackluster arrangement with Canada, which saw Prime Minister Justin Trudeau commit to a $1.3 billion border plan—that was arranged in December. Trudeau also pledged to appoint a “fentanyl czar” and list cartels as terrorists, though just a fraction of America’s black-market fentanyl imports cross the nation’s northern border. Approximately 0.2 percent of America’s fentanyl seizures occur at the Canadian border, according to federal statistics.
Collins: Is there a tangible concession in your view?Davidson: Yeah, absolutely. Collins: What’s new? Davidson: It’s a commitment from Trudeau that wasn’t there to help with fentanylCollins: He announced that plan, though six weeks ago. Davidson: Well, at least he’s… pic.twitter.com/vFnzoFrKvZ
— Acyn (@Acyn) February 4, 2025
During an appearance on CNN, Rampell summed up the situation nicely, arguing during a network roundtable that “Trump is trying to repackage the status quo as a victory.”
“That’s what the leaders of these foreign countries are learning,” Rampell said. “You don’t actually have to give Trump anything. You have to let him announce victory on TV.”
Further still, Rampell posited that Trump had, almost overnight, “tarnished our relationships with our allies, whose help we need to rein in China,” all while destabilizing the economy and making it an unattractive landscape for future investment.
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