BORDER/MEXICO/TARIFFS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump said Thursday talks are going well with Mexico but that he’s prepared to enact new tariffs — a move that faces opposition from his own party and risks the strong economy he’s counting on heading into the 2020 presidential campaign. He also said he’s prepared to slap new tariffs on China if continued trade talks are unsuccessful. A day after Mexican officials came to the White House for talks, Trump says ‘a lot of progress’ was made but that he’s prepared to take ‘dramatic’ steps against the country…Trump has threatened successively higher tariffs on Mexico if they don’t take steps to curb illegal border crossings. In May, more than 144,000 migrants were encountered or arrested at the US-Mexico border, a roughly 32% increase over April and the highest monthly total in 13 years, according to US Customs and Border Protection. Of those, nearly 133,000 had crossed illegally, including more than 11,000 unaccompanied children. In his short remarks at the Shannon airport, Trump hammered Democrats for failing to take legislative steps that would help alleviate swelling numbers of border crossings.”
-Kate Sullivan, Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak, “Trump still threatening tariffs on Mexico — and more on China,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 5, 2019 4:25 am