Mexico’s President just politically curb stomped Trump’s tariffs — and she isn’t the only one

Less than three weeks into his second term and one could reasonably argue President Donald Trump is speedrunning “How to Get the Rest of the World to Hate Your Guts.” Indeed, one knows the situation is dire when Canadians – of all people – unanimously boo you and your national anthem.

If, from 2016 to 2020, most other nations were giving the United States the judgmental side eye, now, there is less subtlety about the way a significant number of foreign countries are fiercely glaring and frowning at the shameless bully who acts as if he’s the king of the playground. From wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico, to expressing the intention to seize the Panama Canal, to squabbling with Denmark over a potential purchase of Greenland, to antagonizing South American countries with forceful and dehumanizing deportations, to insisting Canada ought to become the 51st state, Trump is on his way to exemplifying how a world leader can lose every modicum of international respect –whatever there was even left – in record time.

This list would be bad enough on its own were Trump not also dead-set on starting what none other than The Wall Street Journal entitled “the dumbest” trade wars with the U.S.’s closest trading partners. While one may (somehow) act surprised that it has come to this, the President is only doing what he promised during the campaign trail: slap tariffs on other countries to make them bend to his authoritarian will. Trump made good on his promises after he recently went after Canada, Mexico, and China’s imported goods – and threatened the European Union for good measure, all presumably to facilitate a terrible commerce policy plan only dummies thought would work in the first place.

Newton’s Third Law of Karma

“For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” and it wouldn’t take a genius to predict the same general rule would apply to imposing tariffs on other countries’ imports willy-nilly. Only someone with a Mr. Magoo level of myopic vision would assume that countries with their own sturdy economic backbone (not to mention their self-respect and dignity) like Mexico, Canada, and China would instantly bend the knee upon being coerced into submission with high tariffs on billions-worth of goods.

Surprise, surprise: retaliatory tariffs and banning measures were immediately put into place, leading to speedy agreements with Mexico and Canada that halted the tariff wars for 30 days. In response to the declaration of 25% tariffs on Canadian imports, British Columbia Premier David Eby promised a ban on American booze that would especially affect Republican-led states, Ontario was set to stop sales of all U.S.-imported alcohol, with Quebec and Manitoba vouching to do the same.

On Monday, two days after tariffs on Canadian goods were announced, PM Justin Trudeau and the U.S. President had “a good call,” wherein Canada agreed to enact new measures to reinforce its border. B.C. and other Canadian provinces agreed to interrupt their economic retaliation in light of the month-long pause.

In a Truth Social post, Trump called Canada’s assurances a step forward in ending “the deadly scourge of drugs like Fentanyl that have been pouring into our Country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, while destroying their families and communities all across our Country.” Even though all fentanyl that comes into the U.S. from Canada is less than 1% of the overall amount that is seized coming into the country.

Another ridiculous trade war Trump was on the brink of starting was against Mexico. Funnily enough, President Claudia Sheinbaum used the same phrasing as Trudeau, stating she also had “una buena conversación con el presidente Trump.” Much like it happened with their northern neighbors, the U.S. reached a series of agreements with Mexico regarding the southern border and what to do to mitigate the arms and drug trafficking that flows between both sides.

We all know that Sheinbaum’s “una buena conversación” and Trudeau’s “a good call” mean the same thing at heart: they metaphorically sat a megalomaniac toddler down to showcase how competent and respectable world leaders solve their issues through diplomacy – a noun that ought to come before “tariffs” in a President’s dictionary.