President Donald Trump has passionately used every opportunity to relay to the American public that he is fiercely determined to accomplish his campaign promises, the strength of his campaign pledges after all resonated with the voters and proved to be one of the reasons why he won. One of these is his tough vow to build a wall along America's borders to protect national sovereignty and ensure that Americans will be safe from bad people coming in. He even reiterated just earlier that his administration is within its target schedule of building the wall between the U.S. and its southern neighbor, Mexico. President Trump certainly has not let up in his resolute resolve to build that wall.
One of the possibilities floated to raise the necessary funds in building the said wall is through Trump's plans for levies on Mexican imports and using American aid to pay for the barrier. Mexico, on the other hand, has not received the plans well and opted to talk tough, too. The country has threatened to retaliate against the U.S. should Trump goes ahead with his plan to impose border tax to pay for the disputed wall. The Trump administration is all set to entertain and study proposals for the wall's design next month.
There have also been wide speculations that Trump may divert U.S. aid to pay for the wall, coming off from the January 25 executive order of Trump instructing government agencies to report on the financial assistance given to Mexico in the past five years in relation to the construction of the wall.
Mexico is now also stepping up its tough talk as its foreign minister Luis Videgaray said his country would be ready to respond to any tax levied by the U.S. and even asserted they do not really need financial help from its giant neighbor.
The foreign minister also made threats of his own as he warned Mexico could also impose levies on select goods targeting U.S. regions who are most dependent on exports south of the border such as Iowa, Texas and Wisconsin. Videgaray said that his country is compelled to respond and won't take the threats of the U.S. by simply "having their arms crossed", even as he insisted that levies are not their preference and that they adhere to free trade.
Another official, Mexico's Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, said that his country is also not worried about the prospect of losing U.S. aid as his country now " has its own capabilities." Chong may sound confident since a significant amount of the aid has already been spent by Mexico. Most of the American aid to Mexico comes through the Plan Media program which has earmarked $2.6 billion for security assistance. $1.6 billion has been spent already. The cost of building the wall is pegged much, much higher at $21.6 billion.
Between Trump's resolute spirit and determination to build the wall as promised and from all indication he has a way of fulfilling campaign promises, and Mexico trying to sound defiant and strong now in spite of their internal worries, it would be interesting to see in this war of national interests and objectives, and battle of wills, who will blink first.
