Given that supporters of Donald Trump do not like people referring to his upcoming presidency as dictatorial, notwithstanding his own promise to be a dictator on Day 1 of his administration (and possibly beyond), I will simply refer to Trump as Don Vito. That’s because he recently, in the finest Godfather tradition, made Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum an offer she can’t refuse. He told her that if she fails to enforce his war on drugs and his war on immigrants, he will impose a 25 percent tariff on Mexican products exported to the United States.
Let’s break down what can only be described as political blackmail or extortion on the part of Don Vito Trump.
For decades, the U.S. government has had a drug war and a system of immigration controls, neither of which has ever worked. They still aren’t working. Even worse, they have produced nothing but death, suffering, corruption, and the destruction of liberty and privacy.
Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Moreover, they aren’t going to work in the future — at least not without more massive destruction of liberty and privacy here in our own country, especially at the hands of the U.S. military, which Trump intends to employ. After all, if Trump was confident that his massive militarized police state, including his nationwide deportation plan, was going to work, why would he have to threaten and blackmail the president of Mexico to help him do it?
Let’s keep in mind another important point. This is America’s drug war and America’s war on immigrants, not Mexico’s. Why should Mexico be required to enforce America’s dysfunctional and unworkable systems, especially since such enforcement constitutes a destruction of the liberty and privacy of the Mexican people?
Moreover, what does Don Vito Trump expect Scheinbaum to do? Mexicans are free to travel within their own country, just as Americans are free to travel within the United States. Does Trump expect Scheinbaum to order the Mexican military to initiate force against Mexican citizens who are traveling in a northerly direction and ask them if they are planning to head to the border and cross into the United States? If they respond yes, then what? Arrest? Incarceration? Torture? Execution? Moreover, does Trump expect Scheinbaum to order the Mexican military to line the border and forcibly interdict anyone trying to cross into the United States? What if it’s not illegal under Mexican law for a Mexican citizen to cross the border? Should that make any difference?
What if Scheinbaum succumbs to Trump’s threat and lines the Mexican border with Mexican troops. Suppose also that Mexican citizens circumvent those troops and attempt to cross the border into the United States. Does Trump expect the Mexican military to shoot them, just as East German troops were called on to shoot East Germans who were trying to enter West Germany?
Moreover, take a look at the other aspect of Trump’s blackmail: tariffs. They would target Mexican citizens with impoverishment and even death by starvation. So, Don Vito Trump is essentially saying to Scheinbaum: “Help me enforce my dysfunctional and unworkable systems or I will impoverish or kill your citizens.” That’s an offer that is obviously difficult for Scheinbaum to refuse, especially given that Mexico already has significant poverty, which is why so many Mexican citizens risk their lives and liberty to come to the United States.
Moreover, guess what happens if Trump makes Mexico even more poverty-ridden with his imposition of tariffs. Yep, more immigrants fleeing Mexico to come to the United States, just as millions of Venezuelans fled that country after the imposition of U.S. sanctions on the Venezuelan people. I wonder if Trump has thought about that.
I would be remiss if I failed to note that Trump is threatening the unilateral imposition of tariffs. I thought that under our system of government, those types of decisions were supposed to be made by the elected representatives of the people in Congress. But I suppose that Trump’s thinking is that in a Day 1 dictatorship, who needs a stinking Congress? It’s much easier to simply issue dictatorial decrees.
Eight years ago, when he was running for president, Trump promised the American people that he would force Mexico to pay for the Berlin Wall that he was going to construct that would finally — finally! — bring an end to America’s decades-old immigration morass. That promise was broken. Scheinbaum should be counting her blessings. At least Don Vito Trump didn’t make her an offer she couldn’t refuse with respect to the monies that Mexico still owes Trump for his wall. Well, at least he hasn’t made that offer to her yet.