Mexico and many others are condemning Donald Trump's threat to put a 20 percent tariff on incoming Mexican goods to pay for that idiotic plan to build a wall along the nearly 2,000 miles of border separating it from the United States.

Trump repeatedly promised his supporters that Mexico for some reason would pay for the border wall.  Mexican officials repeatedly told him, NO, they wouldn't.  The latest refusal came after Trump signed an executive order directing the wall be built.  Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto even cancelled his planned meeting with Trump, which had been scheduled for next week.

Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said such a tax wouldn't impact Mexico as much as it would US consumers, who would be stuck paying higher prices for the orange clown's folly:  "A tax on Mexican imports to the United States is not a way to make Mexico pay for the wall, but to a way make the North American consumer pay for it through more expensive avocados, washing machines, televisions," he said.  Mexico is the number one external supplier of US fresh produce, not to mention popular beer and tequila.

America's other trading partners are closely watching the situation.  Japan's chief government spokesman said Tokyo would watch for any impact on Japanese companies, such as automotive companies that manhufacture in Mexico.  Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, "It's far preferable for countries to trade goods and services and bond through investment partnerships than to trade barbs and build barriers."

White House chief of staff Reince Priebus later tried to walk it back, claiming a 20 percent import tax was only one idea in "a buffet of options" to pay for the border wall.

But their fellow Republicans in that reddest of Red States, Texas, are not happy with the plan.  Texas holds a key position in the US-Mexico trade relationship:  33 percent of US imports from Mexico flow through Texas, and 37 percent of US exports to Mexico come from the Lone Star State.

"This tariff would be devastating to the communities in my district that rely on border trade, harmful to the thousands of US companies that work hand-in-hand with Mexican companies to produce goods and services, and expensive to the millions of middle-class families who will feel the pinch as prices go up," said Republican Congressman Will Hurd.

"There will be dire economic consequences to this," warned El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar, who sees the impact what happens to her community when Mexican consumers don't cross the border to buy American products.