The president offered a series of confusing and contradictory statements, saying repeatedly that Mexico would have to submit the agreement to “their congress” while simultaneously saying that he has the power to impose it unilaterally if he wants to. “If they bring the numbers way down, we won’t have to, but this is my option,” Mr. Trump said. “It goes into effect when I want it to, but I have a lot of respect for the president of Mexico. I have a lot of respect for the people we dealt with, so I don’t want to do that, and they have to go back to congress to get that approved.”Moments later, he said that “it will go into effect when Mexico tells me its O.K. But Mr. Ebrard insisted on Monday that such a deal has not been reached with the United States, saying only that the two sides have agreed to potentially revisit the issue in the future.

Source: New York Times June 11, 2019 18:44 UTC