Trump called off his decision to impose tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico on Friday night but, as you might have guessed when Trump's latest "deal" was announced, nothing has actually changed.
The supposed "deal" he struck includes actions that the Mexican government had already taken as long as six months ago.
From the New York Times:
Friday’s joint declaration says Mexico agreed to the “deployment of its National Guard throughout Mexico, giving priority to its southern border.” But the Mexican government had already pledged to do that in March during secret talks in Miami between Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of homeland security, and Olga Sanchez, the Mexican secretary of the interior, the officials said.
The centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s deal was an expansion of a program to allow asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their legal cases proceed. But that arrangement was reached in December in a pair of painstakingly negotiated diplomatic notes that the two countries exchanged. Ms. Nielsen announced the Migrant Protection Protocols during a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee five days before Christmas.
You may recall that the latter agreement was negotiated in an attempt to speed up the process of signing Trump's fake replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the so-called United States Mexico Canada Agreement or USMCA.
So, we have a fake deal that was actually negotiated over six months ago as part of another fake deal.
The dubious nature of Trump's latest "deal" was widely reported over the weekend and, possibly sensing that he had egg on his face, Trump tweeted that he could still impose tariffs on Mexico the next time he has a particular itch that needs scratching.
In a series of tweets, Trump defended the agreement heading off the 5% tax on all Mexican goods that he had threatened to impose Monday, but he warned Mexico that, “if for some unknown reason” cooperation fails, “we can always go back to our previous, very profitable, position of Tariffs.”