Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy bashed reports that the Mexico deal President Donald Trump announced Friday consisted of terms that had been agreed upon months ago, saying that nothing was "devious" about the president's actions.
"The suggestion that Donald Trump held this in his pocket, was waiting on this, he really had the deal done — and he was just waiting making noise," was without merit, Ruddy told BBC News in an interview Monday afternoon.
"There were probably some very crucial issues at the end that he wanted done," he added. "Maybe 80% or 90% of this was done before last week, but he still probably had some critical issues that they weren't bending on — and he was working them till the very end."
Ruddy called Trump "the type of guy, that if he has something in his pocket, he comes out very quickly.
"If he has good news, he would've let the world know pretty quickly about it," he said. "I don't think he was hiding it or holding it back. I don't think it was anything that was devious about it."
The New York Times reported Saturday that the accord Trump announced "with great fanfare" on Friday to stave off tariffs "largely" included actions Mexico backed in previous negotiations, citing "officials from both countries who are familiar with the negotiations."
But Trump hit back on Monday, taking to Twitter to declare that an immigration deal had been "fully signed and documented" and would be revealed "in the not too distant future."
Still, the Times quoted Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard on Monday as saying that only an understanding existed that both nations would evaluate the flow of migrants in the coming months.
But both sides would resume negotiations toward more aggressive changes in asylum rules if the number of illegals crossing the border was not significantly reduced, the Times reported.
"Let's have a deadline to see if what we have works and if not, then we will sit down and look at the measures you propose and those that we propose," Ebrard said at a news conference in Mexico City.
On the broader issue of tariffs as a foreign-policy tool, Ruddy told BBC News that he generally opposed such duties, but that President Trump's approach to using them was "really smart."
Ruddy, citing Newsmax's business dealings with China, said his company was "seeing a dramatic increase in pricing that we have to pass on to our consumers, so that hurts.
"What the president is doing is really smart," he continued. "What he's saying is: 'I'm not really for a protective tariff. If the Chinese are not allowing our companies and products to compete in their market, why should we allow an open door for them here in the U.S.?'"
Ruddy noted that polls showed that "the American public, especially working-class people, they love what the president is doing.
"He wants reciprocity in tariffs — and he's using this as a club," he added. "He's very clever. I don't think he's going off a cliff on it — and he's already gotten good deals with Europe on the farms.
"He's gotten a good deal with Canada. I think he's going to get a good deal, at the end of the day, with the Chinese," Ruddy said. "I think we have in the making some rebalancing with Mexico that is going to be very positive for both countries."
Trump's negotiating style is simple, Ruddy explained: "He takes an extreme position to start and ends up in a compromised position that's a win-win for both sides. He's very clever and calculating."
Turning to Brexit, Ruddy told BBC News that Trump's tough position acknowledged that "there's no easy way out.
"What he's discovered there is that he's looked at this and said: 'There's really not a compromised path that really liberates the United Kingdom from the rest of Europe. The only way we're going to do this is to do a hard Brexit.'
"That's what he's been pushing for," Ruddy told the network. "It's just that you don't have a government that wants to push for that."
The Newsmax CEO predicted that the successor to outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May, who quit amid backlash from her own Conservative Party over Brexit, would most likely embrace Trump's position.
"Britain is better off with a hard Brexit or a more-cleaner cut" plan, he said. "I know that doesn't go over well in Britain.
"I know that's not extremely popular," Ruddy observed, "but it seems like the only way out that they have."
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