Breathe
By Pamela Cerdeira
I was not surprised that the imposition of tariffs was stopped at the last minute. We had seen this story before, only at that time Donald Trump was facing a different propagandist.Let's not forget the "Act of Unity in Defense of Mexico's Dignity and in Favor of Friendship with the People of the United States" in June 2019.
This was what Donald Trump said in 2022 at a rally in Ohio about negotiations with Mexico during his administration:
"I'm in there and I say, hey, here's what we're going to do. He comes in and laughs at me when I tell him we need 28,000 troops along the border, for free. He looks at me like it's free, why would we do that? We need something called 'Stay in Mexico,' that means no one can come into our country until we check them, and that could take months and months. And he said we wouldn't do that. So I looked at him and said, 'You don't think you're going to do this, do you?' They said, 'We're not going to do any of that, why would we do that? We're not going to give you 28,000 free soldiers.' I said, 'Yes you are, because now it's Friday afternoon at one o'clock and Monday morning at 8 o'clock I'm going to put a 25% tariff on all the cars that you stole from us, our industry stole, 32, every car that comes into the United States is going to have a 25% tax or tariff, and every other product that you sell to the United States will be tariffed at approximately 25%, starting Monday morning at 8 o'clock.' And he looked at me, he said, 'Sir, it would be an honor to have 28,000 troops on the border, it would be an honor to have 'Stay in Mexico', we want to have 'Stay in Mexico'.' I've never seen anybody bend over like that. They said it would be an honor to have 28,000 free soldiers."
Donald Trump uses the tariff threat to achieve his goals, and his goals are purely propaganda, at least so far. He boasts of massive deportations, but the numbers of migrants returned to our borders have not changed much. He complains about migration, but it has dropped considerably in recent years. Trump's rhetoric needs enemies and culprits, he behaves like a bully and lies all the time. How do you deal with someone like that? By not jumping on his bandwagon. At least that was Lopez Obrador's response and it has been the response of President Claudia Sheinbaum. Appealing to nationalism, wrapping oneself in the flag, measuring one's ego, are all just a bunch of bullshit that do no good; dodging 25% tariffs makes a huge difference to Mexican exporters and also, although Trump never admitted it, to U.S. consumers.
Giving 10,000 members of the National Guard to guard the border is a symbolic act. They were already doing security work at the border. Who is going to count them? That doesn't mean it's not terrible: migrants, to whom we say with a straight face that we welcome them with open arms and we are going to give them work, are extorted by criminals as well as by security forces. But, like Trump, the former fulfills the propaganda commitment.
For those who focus on the part of Trump's message in which he points out the complicity of organized crime with the Mexican government, I am sorry to give them the bad news: he doesn't give a damn. If he has evidence, it will surely be used to negotiate something that suits him. And deep down, the Mexican government doesn't care either: Ruben Rocha Moya is still there, to whom, by the way, they are sending members of the National Guard 200 by 200 to try to control the problem of insecurity. If the United States wants to catch a criminal, it does not need a single soldier in our country, and there is the story of Mayo Zambada as an example. The key is that El Mayo was apprehended during Biden's time; if it had been a Trump strategy, he would be like Godzilla beating his chest in triumph with his shirt unbuttoned.
We are watching a show conducted by a showman who has the upper hand. Giving her side to satisfy two audiences, Trump's and Mexican, is no easy task, and here Claudia's cool head comes in handy.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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