Politics

‘No Idea What That Actually Means’: NYT Reporter on Trump’s Mexico Posts

'WHO KNOWS?'

Maggie Haberman seemed puzzled by his declaration about a closed border.

The New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman seemed puzzled by Donald Trump’s latest social media posts about Mexico and how, for instance, “Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately.” Trump’s declaration might not amount to much, she said. ”I have no idea what that actually means,” Haberman told CNN’s John Berman. “He has made statements like that before, when he was president, and it didn’t actually amount to the closure of a border. You know, it comes a day after he made some very aggressive tariff threat against Mexico and Canada. And so, I think that’s probably not a coincidence, although who knows?” Trump, who recently pledged new tariffs on goods imported from Mexico, said he had spoken over the phone with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, and that it was a “productive” call. “Who knows what actually happened in that call?” Haberman said. “At some point we may find out, but everything with him is the opening bid of a negotiation. And I look at this, plus the tariff threat, most likely as a combined push toward Mexico to try to get what he wants.” Sheinbaum was later forced to clarify in a post on X, saying Mexico’s position is not to “close borders” but to “build bridges between governments and between peoples.”