Trump Waves What He Says Is Secret Deal With Mexico, but Reveals No Details

WASHINGTON — President Trump on Tuesday waved a piece of paper that he said was part of a “very long and very good” secret agreement with Mexico, refusing to describe it but vowing that it will go into effect whenever he wants it to.

The president’s dramatic flourish, delivered as he left the White House for a trip to Iowa, came a day after Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s foreign minister, publicly denied that his country had reached an undisclosed immigration agreement with the United States.

To the contrary, Mr. Ebrard insisted during a news conference that Mexico and the United States had agreed to discuss more aggressive actions only if the agreements made last Friday do not slow the surge of migrants heading to the border.

“We will sit down and look at the measures you propose and those that we propose,” Mr. Ebrard told reporters.

For the second day in a row, Mr. Trump ignored that denial from Mexico’s top diplomat, insisting that his threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods had forced Mexico to submit to an undisclosed agreement to combat what he views as an invasion from Central American migrants.

Asked by reporters to reveal what the agreement requires Mexico to do, Mr. Trump refused to do so, adding that “the reason is Mexico wants to handle that.”

The president offered a series of confusing and contradictory statements, saying repeatedly that Mexico would have to submit it to “their congress” while simultaneously saying that he has the power to impose it unilaterally if he wants to.

“If they bring the numbers way down, we won’t have to, but this is my option,” Mr. Trump said. “It goes into effect when I want it to, but I have a lot of respect for the president of Mexico. I have a lot of respect for the people we dealt with, so I don’t want to do that, and they have to go back to congress to get that approved.”

Moments later he said that “it will go into effect when Mexico tells me its O.K. to release it.”

Mr. Trump and his aides have repeatedly referred to a “secret agreement” since Sunday morning when he first said in a tweet that a yet-to-be-revealed deal was reached with Mexico and would be “announced at the appropriate time.”

Since then, aides have refused to elaborate, saying that it was up to Mr. Trump to decide whether to say more about it.

Because of Mr. Trump’s mention of approval by Mexico’s congress, Mexican officials and others have said they believe the president is referring to discussions about changes to the region’s asylum rules, which Mexico has said it would consider if the flow of migrants to the United States is not reduced over the next several months.

But Mr. Ebrard insisted on Monday that such a deal has not been reached with the United States, saying only that the two sides have agreed to potentially revisit the issue in the future.

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