Donald Loves Mexico?

How lucky for Donald Trump that he can celebrate his first 100 days in office far away from what he calls the Washington “swamp.” And what a pity that, in order to do so, he has had to flee from the traditional White House Correspondent’s Dinner by inventing an event in Pennsylvania. He is the first president in decades not to attend this dinner. This could be due principally to the deep disagreements he has had with the media, disagreements which are inevitable due to the serious media’s pesky habit of showing that the majority of Trump’s claims and facts are false or simply made up. It could also be because it reminds him of another correspondents’ dinner in which former President Obama mocked Trump’s false claim that the president was born in Africa.

Notwithstanding, Trump had his party in Harrisburg, far away from Washington, where he said that he had spent 100 days “keeping one promise after another,” and unleashed his traditional rhetoric against Mexico and the media. It is not as if these hate speeches don’t have an effect: above all, they resonate in a society in which, with presidential blessing, one can now openly hate, discriminate and attack without consequence. This conduct is endorsed by those who sell T-shirts with racist slogans that discriminate openly, and by the opening under presidential order, of special offices to report crimes committed by immigrants against WASPs or white trash (groups which together constitute Trump’s critical base of supporters).*

However, beyond that, none of the measures that Trump has tried to implement against Mexico and Mexicans has succeeded. The Trump administration frightened markets (and governments) last Wednesday when he announced that he was about to sign an executive order to leave the North American Free Trade Treaty.

In truth, the statement was an attempt to divert attention from something much more important. The House of Representatives, led by Trump’s own party, the Republican Party, had backed out of the majority of his budgetary requests, including the request for funds to build a wall on the border with Mexico. The country was on the cusp of a government shutdown, which is what happens when Congress fails to arrive at a budgetary agreement and many governmental agencies close until Congress and the president reach an accord.

Trump cannot afford the luxury of a government shutdown after a series of successive legislative defeats. As he was unable to bend the will of the Congress, so Steve Bannon, the great creator of fake news, released the developing news that Trump would remove the United States from NAFTA.

The governments of Mexico and Canada reacted. In addition, Trump encountered another reality: many American manufacturers and their representatives in Congress, especially those in the agriculture and farming lobby, one of the most significant beneficiaries of NAFTA, moved immediately to pressure the Capitol and the White House. In a stroke of irony, these lobbies represent groups from states in the Midwest, like Wisconsin, the states which supported Trump and ultimately won him the presidency. When the announcement led to calls with President Peña Nieto and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, it was decided that the administration would have to renegotiate, not abandon NAFTA. However, the development would have served him when it comes to the Trumpian base to which he sells (as he did at the event in Pennsylvania) the idea that these 100 days have been nearly revolutionary.

In summary, the United States will not leave NAFTA because it is unable to. To the contrary, it may be possible to negotiate more quickly, as Mexico and Canada wanted.

Another topic is that of security. In the Harrisburg event, Trump told his supporters that they would have to choose between him and “narco-traffickers,” and between the wall and insecurity. However, just a few days before, on April 18, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Gen. John Kelly, told Congress that the United State’s relationship with Mexico was “in good shape, in good coordination, a good partnership with the Mexican government, Mexican military, law enforcement”. And he acknowledged that “they (Mexico) suffer because of our demand for drugs, we have to recognize that.”**

Meanwhile, at the existing border wall, which covers a significant part of the border with Baja California, immigration officials opened doors so that families who have been separated by these same immigration policies could communicate, embrace, and be with each other, if only for a moment.

It is not the “Washington swamp” that has Trump trapped, but rather, simply the phenomenon called “reality.” That is the wall that he cannot scale, no matter how much he tries to hide the fact with speeches and hate campaigns, or with contradictory, opposing statements. And reality shows that Mexico is indispensable to the United States in matters of trade, economy and security, and in the workforce. And that can’t be changed by any speech.

*Editor’s note: The author uses these negative epithets including the acronym WASP for White Anglo Saxon Protestant, in his original article, and the editors recognize these terms may be considered offensive as used.

**Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, this quoted remark could not be independently verified.