NY Times: US/Mexico Agreement Was Not 'Last Minute' But Agreed To Months Ago

Donald Trump

Late Friday evening, Donald Trump enthusiastically announced that his threat of a tariff war with Mexico had been avoided.

I am pleased to inform you that The United States of America has reached a signed agreement with Mexico. The Tariffs scheduled to be implemented by the U.S. on Monday, against Mexico, are hereby indefinitely suspended. Mexico, in turn, has agreed to take strong measures to....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2019

....stem the tide of Migration through Mexico, and to our Southern Border. This is being done to greatly reduce, or eliminate, Illegal Immigration coming from Mexico and into the United States. Details of the agreement will be released shortly by the State Department. Thank you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 8, 2019

Trump faced intense pressure from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers to not implement the tariffs. So, you can imagine why he was so proud of the 'last minute' agreement.

But was it?

The New York Times is reporting that much of the new 'deal' was agreed upon months ago according to officials from both the U.S. and Mexico familiar with the progress of the deal.

It would appear that the Trumpster's tweets were basically theater.

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 first 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.

And over the past week, negotiators failed to persuade Mexico to accept a “safe third country” treaty that would have given the United States the legal ability to reject asylum seekers if they had not sought refuge in Mexico first.

It was unclear whether Mr. Trump believed that the agreement truly represented new and broader concessions, or whether the president understood the limits of the deal but accepted it as a face-saving way to escape from the political and economic consequences of imposing tariffs on Mexico.

Having threatened Mexico with an escalating series of tariffs — starting at 5 percent and growing to 25 percent — the president faced enormous criticism from global leaders, business executives, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and members of his own staff that he risked disrupting a critical marketplace.

After nine days of uncertainty, Mr. Trump backed down and accepted Mexico’s promises.

FACT: The joint US-Mexico declaration, which is less than 500 words long, requires Mexico to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING it isn't already doing.

It is not a "deal."

It is a fig leaf to cover up Trump's humiliating diplomatic defeat

— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 8, 2019

As usual Trump made a threat (tariffs on Mexico) that he couldn’t fulfill (Congress was going to block him) and so he had no leverage with Mexico.

Mexico knew this, so they just committed to do things they were already doing. No breakthrough. No way to judge if they make good.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) June 8, 2019

"Analysts said the changes announced on immigration appeared to amount to little more than a continuation of steps the two countries had already agreed in December. ..." IOW Trump backed down amid party complaints about pending economic/political doom. https://t.co/Hv3xtO6vtq

— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 8, 2019