The Coming U.S.-Mexico Blow-Up
Trump and Lopez Obrador are making nice for now, but there are lots of reasons that won’t last.
Enjoy the moment.
Photographer: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images
On the eve of Mexico’s election, even before the National Electoral Institute called the results, President Donald Trump tweeted congratulations to the presumptive victor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. The two leaders followed up the next day with a congenial phone call. The following week three U.S. cabinet secretaries, along with senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, headed to Mexico City to meet their counterparts and the president-elect.
The press and markets have taken these gestures as signs of more positive relations ahead. Don’t be too sure. These initial niceties paper over deep chasms in priorities, positions and domestic politics. A blow-up may not be far away.