Mister, can you spare a taco?

The nasty guy has announced a 5% tariff on all goods imported from Mexico. The tariff is to rise by another 5% a month until it reaches 25%. The tariff is to be imposed until Mexico stops the flow of Mexican and Central American refugees reaching the US southern border.

NPR explored such questions as whether it is illegal. Yes, under USA law (Congress ceded tariffs to the Prez. a while back). No, under NAFTA or its not yet ratified replacement. No, under World Trade Organization rules. NPR also explored whether Mexico can halt the flow of refugees – no, because their own security forces are already spread too thin. In other words, the nasty guy is asking for a nearly impossible result.

A lot of the news coverage has been about what the tariff will do to cars. Because of NAFTA, various parts that go into cars might currently cross the border up to seven times.

Melissa McEwan of Shakesville points out a much bigger concern: food. A significant portion of the US food supply comes from Mexico. McEwan asks:

How many people can afford for their grocery bills to go up by 25%?
…
If Trump follows through on this malicious threat, people will starve. And … only the most brutal dictators starve their own people.

Commenter carovee added:

Aaaand, Lindsay Graham has already folded. So I guess Republicans are cool with their constituents starving. Sadly, their base seems pretty cool with suffering as long as those people are suffering more. Deplorables, all of 'em.

Becca Stareyes wrote:

Somehow, I ended up following a few agriculture scientists on Twitter, and they note that when considering the impact of 'exactly how much food we import from Mexico', we also need to consider that we have a record low on planting corn and soybeans in the Midwest thanks to the cold, wet weather, and the Southeast is in a drought.

So basically exactly the conditions where we might need to import more food, and this guy is threatening tariffs on a country we get lots of food from?

eyeballsmccat added:

I have never claimed to be any sort of political prognosticator, and I'm certainly not going to start now, especially on behalf of the GOP, but...why in the WORLD would you mess with FOOD prices during an election cycle?

This is mostly a rhetorical question. I don't like any of the answers I can come up with, personally.