President Donald Trump and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador both agreed wholeheartedly in their afternoon of meetings today that friendly relations between the United States and Mexico, as well as their personal friendship, had been greatly strengthened by their talks, laying the basis for a great future for their nations together. The occasion was to celebrate the initiation of the North American trade deal which replaced NAFTA, the U.S.MCA, but the discussion extended to a much deeper level.
But the actual political significance of the meeting lay, not in the specific deals struck, but what some might dismiss as “symbolism”: the emphatic commitment of both heads of state to reestablishing relations along the lines of the Lincoln-Juárez alliance and FDR-Cárdenas friendship—historic references which were the hallmark of Lyndon LaRouche’s policy for U.S.-Mexico relations, and North-South ties in general.
We are “committing ourselves to a shared future of prosperity, security and harmony,” President Trump declared before they signed a “Joint Declaration between the United States and Mexico.” “With this signing, we pledge the close and continued friendship between the United States and Mexico, and we accelerate our progress toward an even greater tomorrow … two sovereign nations thriving, growing, and excelling side by side, working together…. The potential for the future of the United States and Mexico is unlimited.”
Both clearly enjoyed proving the political Establishment’s game plan for both sides of the border, who had predicted confrontation between them, dead wrong. “The relationship between the United States and Mexico has never been closer than it is right now. And as the President [López Obrador] said a little while ago, people were betting against that,” Trump chuckled. López Obrador smiled as he told Trump: They forecast that our relationship would fail, and “we are not fighting, and we are friends.”
Both men understand where the other “is coming from,” and that that is what their enemies fear. As Trump put it this afternoon: “Each of us was elected on the pledge to fight corruption, return power to the people, and put the interests of our countries first. And I do that and you do that, Mr. President.” López Obrador had made precisely that point in his first letter to Trump after he won the election in July 2018.
