Donald Trump Says New Tariffs on Mexican-made Cars Can Stop the Flow of Migrants and Drugs

President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to slap new tariffs on Mexican-made vehicles if the flow of drugs and Central American asylum seekers coming to the United States did not end. Complaining about the "massive amounts of drugs" and migrants entering the U.S., Trump said Washington would give Mexico one year to address the problem. "We're going to give them a one-year warning, and if the drugs don't stop or [are] largely stopped, we're going to put tariffs on Mexico and products, in particular, the cars,” he told reporters, “and if that doesn't stop the drugs, we close the border.” The president has repeatedly threatened to close the border with Mexico since last week due to the large number of primarily Central American migrants arriving at the U.S. border. While Trump reiterated on Thursday that this was still an option, he suggested tariffs would now be his first choice. “Mexico understands that we're going to close the border or I'm going to tariff the cars. One or the other, probably start off with the tariffs,” he said. “That'll be a very powerful incentive because Mexico has the strongest immigration laws anywhere in the world.” Leading Republican senators have come out against Trump’s threat to close the U.S.-Mexican border, pointing to the economic problems such a move would incur...MORE

I can only interpret this as Trump backing off for a year. Then he will raise it again...during the Presidential election year. Notice too that will be in April, in case someone decides to primary him.