Mexico and the non-tariffs - and the inevitable rush of hot takes

Mexico's president Manuel Lopez Obrador and its foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard held a rally in Tijuana to celebrate the outcome of negotiations over the twin issues of trade and stopping Central American would-be illegal aliens at the Mexico-Guatemala border.

Now, the question arises as to why they can take a celebratory stance, when a number of folks - pretty much all of whom, ahem, are, shall we say, rather enthusiastic about the current US president - portray a scenario in which Mexico buckled under the hard-nosed tactics of their US counterparts.

Now, it comes to light, via a New York Times article, that Mexico had agreed to take border action months ago.  It's kind of interesting to see the way Michael Shear and Maggie Haberman, the article's authors, frame the matter. They basically say that it was the Very Stable Genius whose knees started quivering because a critical mass of post-Americans understood what a bad idea the tariffs would be:

It was unclear whether Mr. Trump believed that the agreement truly represented new and broader concessions, or whether the president understood the limits of the deal but accepted it as a face-saving way to escape from the political and economic consequences of imposing tariffs on Mexico, which he began threatening less than two weeks ago.

Having threatened Mexico with an escalating series of tariffs — starting at 5 percent and growing to 25 percent — the president faced enormous criticism from global leaders, business executives, Republican and Democratic lawmakers, and members of his own staff that he risked disrupting a critical marketplace.

After nine days of uncertainty, Mr. Trump backed down and accepted Mexico’s promises. 

Well, the VSG wasn't going to stand for that, of course. So he went on a Twitter rant. I found this particular exhibition of his thin skin noteworthy:

If President Obama made the deals that I have made, both at the Border and for the Economy, the Corrupt Media would be hailing them as Incredible, & a National Holiday would be immediately declared. With me, despite our record setting Economy and all that I have done, no credit!

And you know that one has the throne-sniffers fist-pumping across the land.

As with anything in post-America, there is no time for a world-stage or national-stage development to marinate for even a microsecond. An assessment of whether it was a win or loss for one's own tribe must be issued immediately.

Is it possible that this turn of events was a little of this, a little of that, and that Mexico had little or no interest in letting yet another caravan traipse across its territory?

Some further investigative journalism and the hindsight of history after some months or years have passed will give us a better view. But few post-Americans have that kind of patience. There's a cadre of bad guys to own!