President Trump on Thursday abandoned his threat to close the U.S. border with Mexico, saying he will instead give Mexico a “one-year warning” to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling before possibly imposing tariffs on cars.
Trump’s latest pivot on closing the border eliminates near-term risk to the U.S. economy, but his alternative plan may hurt efforts to implement the pending U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade pact.
“The only thing frankly better, but less drastic than closing the border [is to] tariff the cars coming in. I will do it. You know I will do it, I don’t play games,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “So we’re doing it to stop people. We’ll give them a one-year warning and if the drugs don’t stop or largely stop, we’re going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular cars … If that doesn’t stop the drugs, we close the border.”
Trump abruptly threatened to close the border last week, including to “all trade,” in response to Central American migrant caravans. When Mexico arrested migrants, Trump pivoted on Tuesday, saying he would still close the border if Democrats in Congress did not pass a long wish-list of immigration-restricting legal reforms.
Many Republican critics of Trump said international trade was too important to justify a border closure.
On Thursday, Trump said he believes Mexico cannot back away from the pending USMCA trade deal, but he considers border security more important anyhow.
[Related: Sarah Sanders: Democrats leaving Trump ‘no choice’ in Mexico border closure dispute]
“Now we have a deal, USMCA, it is all done, they have to live with it. They’ll have to live with it. I’m not trying to be unfair, they’ll have to live with it. The USMCA a great deal for everybody, but this is more important to me than the USMCA,” he said.
Trump added that if Democrats in Congress block the trade deal, “it’s purely political.” White House officials have expressed interest in Congress approving the deal this summer.
