I guess he meant it after all.
President Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto were scheduled to meet next week in Washington.
However after Nieto had the gall to reiterate his longstanding position that Mexico would not pay for the multi-billion-dollar wall that Trump wants to build along the southern border, Trump tweeted:
The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 26, 2017
And so Nieto went ahead and canceled.
Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer said the US would recoup the cost of the wall (up to $25 billion) by imposing a 20 percent tariff on Mexican products entering the the country. After it was pointed out that American consumers would bear the cost of any such tariff, Spicer backed off and said it was just one of many ideas.
Trump and Nieto spoke by phone Friday, but there’s no indication that anything was resolved. Although I have no idea what was said, I am quite sure that Nieto once again did not agree to Trump’s demand that Mexico pay for the wall.
So now relations with our southern neighbor are as bad as they have been in decades, and we’re only one week into the Trump presidency. Just 207 weeks to go.
