The "big deal" between the United States and Mexico announced by president Donald Trump on June 8 contains no major concessions on Mexico's part and simply reiterated previous agreements affirmed by both countries over the past five months.
A closer examination of the deal also shows no mention of Mexico agreeing to buy large quantities of American farm products as falsely claimed by Trump, said The New York Times. Trump is now using his alleged victory with the deal to raise money for his 2020 presidential campaign.
More pointedly, the deal also saw Mexico reject Trump's main demand it adopts Trump's "safe third country" agreement that would have compelled most migrants to seek asylum in Mexico rather than the U.S.
Mexico's promise to deploy its National Guard throughout the country and its northern border with the U.S., which Trump claimed was a breakthrough, was nothing of the sort since the Mexican government had promised to do so in March.
Trump's claim Mexico agreed to his demand to force asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases went through the U.S. immigration court system was actually agreed to by Mexico in December, said the NYT.
The newspaper also said it's unclear if Trump understands the deal only contains a few major Mexican concessions. It also believes Trump is brandishing the agreement as a way to save face in light of the lack of any major wins over Mexico.
All in all, Trump's claim of a great victory over Mexico is no such thing. Political analysts said this episode is another example of Trump's routine tactic of creating a false crisis such as the need for a border wall with Mexico; letting the crisis grab headlines for a while before declaring the crisis resolved and claiming the win.
Trump promised to impose tariffs of 5 percent on Mexico on June 10 if Mexico didn't stanch to the inflow of migrants traveling through the country en route to the U.S.
Trump on June 8 tweeted: "I would like to thank the President of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, together with all of the many representatives of both the United States and Mexico, for working so long and hard to get our agreement on immigration completed!"
On Sunday, Trump tweeted Mexico had agreed to "immediately begin buying large quantities of agricultural product from our great patriot farmers."
Mexico agreed to no such thing, said Bloomberg News, citing three Mexican officials.
