WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump threatened Thursday, in a Truth Social post, to double tariffs on Mexico right away if the country does not stop migrant caravans he said are forming and heading north through Mexico.
Trump posted the warning at 7:04 a.m. ET. He tied the movement to the midterm elections, writing that with what he called the perceived Republican loss — and adding, in capital letters, that he was not on the ballot — “the INVASION of our Country is taking place again.”
“Huge CARAVANS are forming and beginning their illegal march through Mexico,” he wrote.
Many of the people in the caravans, Trump claimed, are people other countries do not want. “Send them to America,” they say, according to his post. He said they will not be accepted.
His demand to Mexico was direct. “MEXICO MUST STOP THEM, NOW, and if they do not do so, the Tariffs on Mexico will be IMMEDIATELY DOUBLED,” he wrote.
Trump said Mexico, the governor of Texas — whom he called “THE VERY LIBERAL NEW GOVERNOR OF TEXAS” — the Border Patrol and ICE had all been informed. “There will be no leniency!” he added.
He gave no details about any one caravan — not where it was in Mexico, or how many people were in it. On tariffs, too, he stopped short of naming a rate, current or doubled. And apart from “now,” there was no deadline in the post.