Mexican Officials Have a Trick for Navigating Trump: Ignore the Tweets and Go to Jared

As the president threatened to inflict economically painful tariffs, his son-in-law made more diplomatic overtures.

Erin Banco
National Security Reporter

Asawin Suebsaeng
White House Reporter

Published 06.12.19 5:16AM ET

It was Friday night last week and top officials in Mexico, including those in the president and foreign minister’s offices, were alerted by their aides that Donald Trump had tweeted, again.

Officials and aides had all grown accustomed to following President Trump’s personal Twitter account throughout the ongoing immigration talks.

Most times they ignored the missives, believing that Trump’s public statements were often divorced from the reality of the negotiations, according to individuals with direct knowledge of that strategy. Instead, they relied on what Mexican officials viewed as a better source of information from inside the Trump administration: Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and top adviser.

According to individuals working with the Mexican government, Kushner served as both a source of comfort and a backchannel during a months-long process that was filled with threats of devastating tariffs and accusations that the country wasn’t doing enough to stem the tide of immigration to the U.S’s southern border.

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