Trump recently announced that he would impose tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico beginning on June 10th leaving himself some time to change his mind, but it does not currently appear that he will.
Trump spoke at a joint press conference alongside British Prime Minister Theresa May this morning where he said he will impose the tariffs if Mexico doesn't do as he commands.
“We’re going to see if we can do something, but I think it’s more likely that the tariffs go on,” Trump said at a news conference in London, describing large flows of migrants into America as an “invasion.”
“Mexico should step up and stop this onslaught, this invasion into our country,” Trump said, also calling on the U.S. Congress to pass immigration laws to address the situation and blaming Democrats for stalling any such effort.
For their part, the Mexican government has drawn a clear line in the sand.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the country was committed to continuing to work to keep migrants from Central America from reaching the U.S. border. Pushing back against Trump’s charge that Mexico was doing “nothing” to help, the government said 250,000 more immigrants would reach the United States in 2019 without its efforts.
Ebrard said, however, that a proposal favored by some U.S. officials to designate Mexico a “safe third country,” which would force Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States to apply for it instead in Mexico, was not an option.
“An agreement about a safe third country would not be acceptable for Mexico,” Ebrard told reporters in Washington. “They have not yet proposed it to me. But it would not be acceptable and they know it.”
In short, Mexico is never going to give Trump what he wants to the extent that Trump can even define what exactly he wants.
I personally believe that this is all a charade and that Trump intends to use revenue generated by the new tariffs to pay for his fantasy border wall.
I can easily imagine Trump claiming that Mexico is finally paying for his wall even though the tariffs will be paid for by Americans. And in my opinion, this would be an unconstitutional tax and a greater threat to Democracy than almost anything else Trump has done.