'Overlooked' aspect of Trump's tariff threat 'exposes ugly MAGA scam': analysis

President-elect Donald Trump's latest round of tariff threats against Mexico has exposed what the New Republic's Greg Sargent calls an "ugly MAGA scam" in his latest article.

In promoting the article on his BlueSky account, Sargent writes that "This is getting overlooked, but the whole premise of Trump's threat of tariffs is based on a lie."

Elaborating on this, he writes Trump is "claiming Mexico must be bullied into stopping migrants. But Mexico is *already* doing this. That's a big reason crossings have dropped."

Sargent notes that the big drop in border crossings came after months of efforts by the Biden administration to work with the Mexican government to stop the flow of migrants that overwhelmed border security forces for much of his first term.

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"Trump's scam is designed to create the illusion that his fearsome threats are needed to get Mexico to act," writes Sargent. "Bank on this: Once he's in office, he will credit his threat of tariffs for getting Mexico's cooperation, even though it's already happening."

Trump has threatened tariffs against Mexico not just because of border crossings, but also for the amount of fentanyl that is flowing into the United States.

Many experts, including some who previously served in the Trump administration, have warned that there is no quick fix for slowing down fentanyl trafficking given that there is high demand for the drug and it is cheap to produce.