Turns Out That The Bulk Of The Deal With Mexico Was Agreed To Ages Before Tariff Threat

Most of the concessions that President Donald Trump extracted from Mexico in exchange for withholding his threatened tariffs were offered months before the most recent showdown, according to the New York Times.

Though Trump is celebrating the deal as a major win for him, Mexico had already pledged to up its national guard presence in March and to rework the asylum policy in December. In fact, Trump’s negotiators failed to get Mexican officials to agree to a “safe third country” policy that would allow the United States to oust asylum seekers who had not first sought refuge in Mexico.

Trump was facing overwhelming disapproval from both parties over his threatened tariffs, with his usually loyal Republican contingent threatening a veto-proof vote to nullify his national emergency declaration out of retribution.