BORDER/DEMS/IMMIGRATION/MEXICO/NAFTA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/WALL: “President Donald Trump has begun to tie his seemingly abandoned campaign promise that Mexico will pay for the construction of a wall on the U.S. border to the newly negotiated trade pact that would replace the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a Thursday [12-13-18] tweet, Trump, using dubious logic, declared that he’d made good on his vow by way of coming through on another campaign pledge to renegotiate NAFTA with the leaders of Canada and Mexico…Following an extraordinary televised meeting in the Oval Office on Tuesday [12-11-18] with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in which the trio sparred over wall funding, Pelosi told lawmakers that in private, Trump asserted the same claim. The Trump administration completed its negotiations on the revised NAFTA, which has been dubbed the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, earlier this fall. The new deal has yet to be ratified by Congress, and the administration faces an uphill climb to getting the support it needs from lawmakers.”
–Caitlin Oprysko, “Trump claims new trade pact will ensure Mexico pays for border wall,” Politico, December 13, 2018 9:04 am