MEXICO CITY — He has referred to as Colombian President Gustavo Petro “a sick man” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator.” He as soon as slammed French President Emmanuel Macron as “publicity-seeking,” and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as “dishonest and weak.”
President Trump is understood for hurling scathing insults at world leaders.
Then there’s Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The U.S. president has described her, at turns, as “incredible,” “terrific” and “elegant.”
In a social media submit Thursday, he provided his most glowing compliments but, extolling Sheinbaum as “great and very smart” and saying Mexicans “must be very pleased” to have her as their chief.
Trump’s emphatic reward for Sheinbaum is shocking, given their marked variations in temperament and politics.
Sheinbaum, a leftist recognized for her endurance and pragmatism, labeled Israel’s U.S.-backed warfare in Gaza a “genocide” and condemned the current U.S. seize of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
She disagrees with Trump on three of his firmly held beliefs: that the U.S. ought to elevate tariffs on Mexican imports, expel migrants en masse, and assault drug traffickers inside Mexico.
However Sheinbaum is keenly conscious of how Trump’s actions on commerce, immigration and safety might plunge Mexico into turmoil, doubtlessly threatening her personal reputation and the legacy of the ruling social gathering based by her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
So she has tread strategically, requesting frequent telephone calls with Trump, making concessions on points corresponding to safety and heaping reward proper again at him. She described her dialog with Trump on Thursday as “productive and cordial” and added: “I had the pleasure of greeting his spouse, Melania.”
Thus far, her ways have labored. Trump’s repeated threats of sweeping tariffs on Mexican items and drone assaults on cartel targets haven’t but come to move.
Managing Trump has been one of many greatest — and maybe most consequential — focal factors of Sheinbaum’s presidency. “It’s not one thing that simply occurred at the moment,” she mentioned lately of her relationship with Trump. “Communication, coordination, and defending the folks of Mexico … are constants.”
Sheinbaum has been quelling nerves in Mexico since Trump’s election in late 2024, simply weeks after she assumed the presidency. She promised to forge robust bonds with the incoming U.S. chief, who’s extensively disliked right here for his diatribes towards immigrants. Sheinbaum vowed to emulate Kalimán, a beloved Mexican comic-book superhero recognized for defeating villains with “serenity and endurance.”
She has sought to command Trump’s respect in different methods, holding large public rallies that display widespread help for her authorities. “We’ll all the time maintain our heads excessive,” she mentioned at one occasion shortly earlier than Trump took workplace. “Mexico is a free, unbiased, and sovereign nation. We coordinate, we collaborate, however we don’t submit.”
In some methods, Trump has really galvanized help for Sheinbaum by sparking a surge in nationalism. Polls present most Mexicans approve of her dealing with of the bilateral relationship. In accordance with a ballot carried out by El País newspaper, her approval ranking soared to 83% in Might after she persuaded Trump to postpone the implementation of heavy tariffs. It now stands round 74%.
Nonetheless, some political analysts level out that Trump might like Sheinbaum as a result of, regardless of her discuss of defending Mexico’s sovereignty, she has really acquiesced to him many occasions, notably on problems with safety.
“The checklist of concessions to Trump collected in a single 12 months far surpasses in scope and depth these made by supposedly extra ‘subservient’ governments,” wrote columnist Jorge Lomonaco in El Common newspaper.
Sheinbaum has deployed Mexican troops to cease migrants from reaching the U.S. border. She has despatched dozens of accused drug criminals to the U.S. to face trial there, sidestepping the usual extradition course of to take action. She imposed tariffs on some imports from China and different nations, and her authorities reportedly paused shipments of oil to Cuba, signaling a doable finish to what Sheinbaum had lauded as a “humanitarian” effort to assist the embattled island nation — one other doable goal of Trump.
“In public, Sheinbaum’s authorities has maintained a sovereign and patriotic rhetoric, however it’s evident that, in non-public, it has been very docile with the U.S.,” Lomonaco wrote.
Trump’s discourse with Mexico continues to be infused with threats. Whereas he calls Sheinbaum a “good girl,” he additionally mentioned in Might that she is “so afraid of the cartels she will be able to’t even suppose straight.”
Many consider Trump’s resolution to ship U.S. particular forces to arrest Maduro and his spouse in Caracas might embolden him to launch a U.S. navy assault on cartels in Mexico — a transfer that Sheinbaum would clearly see as crossing a purple line, and will most likely ignite a political disaster right here.
“I do suppose there’s an actual threat of a strike on Mexican soil towards cartels, particularly after what occurred in Venezuela,” mentioned Gustavo Flores-Macías, dean of the Faculty of Public Coverage on the College of Maryland.
Mexico, he mentioned, is making an attempt “a fragile stability of retaining U.S. authorities pleased with out falling into this perennial sport of making an attempt to appease the White Home and do the whole lot that Trump desires.”
Trump has additionally threatened to tug out of a trilateral commerce cope with Canada, which was negotiated throughout his first time period. The U.S., Mexico and Canada should launch a joint evaluation of the free commerce pact by July 1, its sixth anniversary, to find out whether or not the nations intend to resume it for 16 extra years or make modifications. Trump has referred to as the deal “irrelevant,” however the pact is key to a Mexican financial system closely depending on cross-border commerce.
Meantime, an issue arose final week surrounding the mysterious seize in Mexico of Ryan Wedding ceremony, the previous Canadian Olympic snowboarder who faces federal costs in California of working a billion-dollar drug-trafficking ring.
Sheinbaum dismissed stories that FBI brokers on the bottom in Mexico participated within the the arrest of Wedding ceremony, who, in response to U.S. authorities, had been hiding for years in Mexico.
Sheinbaum insisted that Wedding ceremony turned himself in on the U.S. Embassy in Mexico Metropolis and, at a information briefing, displayed {a photograph} that she mentioned depicted Wedding ceremony outdoors the embassy.
However Canadian media mentioned the picture was most likely pretend, a creation of synthetic intelligence. Sheinbaum dodged questions concerning the picture’s authenticity. Wedding ceremony’s lawyer, Anthony Colombo, disputed Sheinbaum’s account that Wedding ceremony turned himself in. “He was arrested,” Colombo advised reporters outdoors the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, the place Wedding ceremony entered a not responsible plea. “He didn’t give up.”
Sheinbaum was capable of climate the dispute, however the episode once more raised questions on how far the Mexican president is keen to go to maintain Trump pleased.
“It will be very very regarding — and definitely unlawful underneath Mexican legislation — if the FBI operated and arrested a person on Mexican soil,” mentioned Flores-Macías, who added: “I feel there are some clear indicators that this happened with out the involvement of Mexican authorities.”
Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
