Trump, Mexican leader celebrate new trade agreement

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump greeted Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Wednesday at the White House, where the two leaders celebrated the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which went into effect July 1.

It was the first foreign trip made by López Obrador since he took office in December 2018 and the two presidents’ first face-to-face meeting.

A military honor guard lined the north driveway of the White House ahead of López Obrador’s arrival in a black SUV. Trump greeted the Mexican president before meetings, a signing and dinner.

During a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden, the two leaders sang each other’s praises as their sweltering top aides and reporters looked on.

Contrary to Trump’s opening campaign remarks in 2015 — he said then Mexico mostly sends criminals and people with “lots of problems” across the border — Trump praised Mexican Americans as “hardworking, incredible people. They are also great businessmen and women” and “very successful.”

For his part, López Obrador offered, “But what I mainly appreciate is that you have never sought to impose anything on us violating our sovereignty.” He also thanked Trump for not following the Monroe Doctrine and not trying to treat Mexico as a colony.

“In terms of the remarks themselves, I have to say I found some of them to be just weird” and anachronistic, Christopher Wilson, deputy director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute said of Lopez Obrador’s remarks.

As for Trump’s comments, Wilson said, they were “very different from 2015 when he came down the escalator” to announced his bid for the Oval Office.

The two leaders, Wilson noted, come from different sides of the political spectrum, but they both “see themselves as anti-establishment figures.”

At dinner later, Lopez Obrador said, “The forecasts failed. We didn’t fight. We are friends, and we’re going to keep being friends.”

The visit occurred a day before Trump is set to meet with Hispanic leaders before he signs an executive order billed as a benefit for the Hispanic community.

According to exit polls, Trump garnered 28 percent of the Latino vote in 2016 — a percentage his campaign and Latinos for Trump would like to boost.

The White House also has signaled that Trump is likely to sign this week an executive order to end DACA, President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has allowed 700,000 immigrants who came to the United States as minors to remain in the country.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected an executive order signed by Trump in 2017 to end DACA on procedural grounds.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not attend the meeting, although his nation is a signatory to the agreement. During a Friday news conference, Trudeau cited possible aluminum and steel tariffs and concerns about the pandemic as the reason he chose to remain in Ottawa.

“Canada was unable to travel because of the restrictions they have because of COVID,” White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters.

“The photo op was missing a very obviously important piece of it,” Wilson told the Review-Journal.

“We’ll have a separate day with Canada,” Trump said.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.