The good news is that Donald Trump's staff and/or a bevy of critical Republican lawmakers has convinced Donald, for now, to hold off on his latest promised set of tariffs, this set to be leveled against Mexico for allegedly not doing enough to assist Donald J. Trump in blocking refugee and asylum-seeker access to our southern border. It unfolded in the usual fashion: Outlandish claims, hyper-aggressive threats and, eventually, a deal that does not appear to substantially different from the status quo.
The not much different part is the estimation of The New York Times write-up, notably written by reporters who have kept on (cough) generally friendly terms with the administration. Most of the announced deal "consists largely of actions that Mexico had already promised to take in prior discussions," the Times reports. The most-touted bit, a pledge from Mexico to hold more asylum-seekers in Mexico as the U.S. processes their claims, was previously hammered out in December. (It's also a jerk move, on our part, to be insisting that Mexico provide shelter on our behalf and on their dime, but jerk move is Donald Trump's favorite dance move.)
Mexico did not, however, agree to the core Trump demand that Mexico enter a treaty by which the United States could summarily reject asylum claims unless asylum seekers first attempted to seek asylum from Mexico itself. For mysterious reasons, the Mexican government is not so enamored of Team Trump that they are jumping to solve Trump's xenophobic problems on his behalf; go figure.
So now we're at the final step of the Donald Trump Self-Made Crisis cycle: Donald getting mad that reporters are not dutifully reporting the magnificence of his alleged triumph:
After a thread-long airing of grievances and another specific, direct assertion that the New York Times and CNN are "The Enemy of the People", Donald piped up with perhaps the most on-brand grouse he possibly could. Why aren't you peasants holding a "National Holiday" celebrating him and his accomplishments. Well? Why aren't you?
That's what Donald imagined the presidency would be, after all. He imagined he'd ride in on a glittering golden pony, fix All The Things by sheer force of his extraordinary genius, and the United States would be so grateful for his leadership that they would hold goddamn parades in his honor and declare a new national holiday dedicated exclusively to his Aryan magnanimousness.
But it hasn't happened, and he continues to get more and more incensed by the delay.