Francis Wilkinson, Columnist

The Border Economy Works in Spite of Trump

As a port expansion shows, the demand for integration of the U.S. and Mexican economies is insatiable.

January 30, 2018 at 12:00 PM UTC

Francis Wilkinson is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering US politics and policy. Previously, he was executive editor for the Week and a writer for Rolling Stone.

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Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images

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President Donald Trump is obsessed with the southern border of the U.S. It’s less clear how much the border cares about Trump.

The U.S. president’s verbal assaults on Mexico, and his meandering threats and periodic retreats about scuttling the North American Free Trade Agreement, can’t help but influence relations between Mexico and the U.S. and potential economic development. (Among other things, it may be fueling populist politics in Mexico, aided, as in the U.S., by Russian propaganda.)