JD Vance tried to defend Donald Trump’s tariffs Monday with an X post claiming that Mexico gave in to Trump’s demands in order to stall economic harm. However, the post quickly backfired on him.
Aside from the glaring mistake of spelling the president’s last name as “Trunp,” the vice president’s post included a screenshot of Trump bragging about Mexico sending 10,000 soldiers to the southern U.S. border. But, there’s one problem with that: Mexico also deployed 10,000 troops to the border in 2021, under President Biden.
Commentators on X quickly seized on Vance’s attempt to seek praise over something Biden had also achieved without heavy tariffs.
50%. So this is not new. At all. And it won’t impact fentanyl trafficking, which is mostly done by US citizens.” width=”1178″ data-caption=”” data-credit=””>
Vance’s talking point even made it to Fox News, with commentator Marie Harf, a Democratic commentator, telling the right-wing network’s audience that Mexico’s troop deployment was nothing new.
Trump’s tariffs have already caused stocks to plummet and are drawing criticism from his fellow Republicans as well as retaliatory tariffs from Canada, with China threatening to take action with the World Trade Organization. Even if Trump claims that his tariffs have achieved something with Mexico (they haven’t), their full effects will be felt in the coming weeks and months, and experts say they won’t be good. Vance and the MAGA right may soon be struggling to find any silver lining.
