President Donald Trump temporarily backed down on his tariff threats against Mexico after reaching an agreement with his counterpart Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo — which prompted a range of reactions.
The two nations' presidents each announced an agreement on sending Mexican forces to the border to prevent drugs and undocumented migrants from crossing into the U.S., and Trump agreed to delay a proposed 25-percent tariffs on goods from Mexico.
"I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico. It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States," Trump later posted on Truth Social.
"We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico."
Many social media users pointed out that Mexico had already agreed to deploy troops to its northern border without risking economic catastrophe through tariffs.
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"Mexico has made similar agreements without the threat of tariffs," posted Sam Stein, of The Bulwark and MSNBC. "Here in 2021 they agreed to surge the same number of troops to help with migration. Here in 2022 they agreed to invest an additional $1.5B. Here in 2023 were 15 administrative actions."
"Surging 10,000 troops to the border is something Biden got them to do in the past w/o tanking the stock market," added attorney Marcy Wheeler. "Given that @Claudiashein got concessions by giving Trump what Mexico has already given the US, I gotta wonder whether Trump's tantrum was just about shorting the stock market."
"It seems like the trick to negotiating with Trump is to realize he doesn’t have any idea what the current facts are," said Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell. "'Oh you want 10,000 troops?' says world leader who already deployed 15K. 'Great 10k it is.'"
"Ooof! Mexico, Canada and Wall Street call Trump's Tariff bluff," said MSNBC's Michael Steele, the former chair of the Republican National Committee. "NOW he wants to talk to Canada, delay tariffs on Mexico for a month and Wall Street is telling him real time his tariffs are 'dumb.' Ahh, the price of eggs, cars, avocados..."
"Fentanyl is small and easy to hide, so it is mostly smuggled while hidden in cars being driven through border checkpoints — often by Americans," added Washington Post columnist Philip Bump. "Stationing soldiers at the border does basically nothing to stop this."
