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 thought for hurling scathing insults at world leaders.
Then there’s Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The U.S. president has described her, at turns, as “implausible,” “terrific” and “elegant.”
In a social media publish Thursday, he provided his most glowing compliments but, extolling Sheinbaum as “fantastic and extremely smart” and saying Mexicans “ought to be very completely happy” 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 identified for her persistence and pragmatism, labeled Israel’s U.S.-backed conflict 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 may plunge Mexico into turmoil, probably threatening her personal reputation and the legacy of the ruling celebration based by her populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
So she has trodden 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.”
Up to now, 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 right this moment,” she mentioned just 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 sturdy bonds with the incoming U.S. chief, who’s broadly disliked right here for his diatribes in opposition to immigrants. Sheinbaum vowed to emulate Kalimán, a beloved Mexican comic-book superhero identified for defeating villains with “serenity and persistence.”
She has sought to command Trump’s respect in different methods, holding large public rallies that exhibit widespread assist for her authorities. “We are going to at all times maintain our heads excessive,” she mentioned at one occasion shortly earlier than Trump took workplace. “Mexico is a free, impartial and sovereign nation. We coordinate, we collaborate, however we don’t submit.”
In some methods, Trump has really galvanized assist for Sheinbaum by sparking a surge in nationalism. Polls present most Mexicans approve of her dealing with of the bilateral relationship. In response to a ballot performed by El País newspaper, her approval score soared to 83% in Could after she persuaded Trump to postpone the implementation of heavy tariffs. It now stands round 74%.
Nonetheless, some political analysts level out that Trump could like Sheinbaum as a result of, regardless of her discuss of defending Mexico’s sovereignty, she has really acquiesced to him many occasions, significantly on problems with safety.
“The record of concessions to Trump gathered 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 attainable finish to what Sheinbaum had lauded as a “humanitarian” effort to help the embattled island nation — one other attainable 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 lady,” he additionally mentioned in Could that she is “so afraid of the cartels she will’t even assume straight.”
Many consider Trump’s choice to ship U.S. particular forces to arrest Maduro and his spouse in Caracas may 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 in all probability ignite a political disaster right here.
“I do assume there’s an actual danger of a strike on Mexican soil in opposition to cartels, particularly after what occurred in Venezuela,” mentioned Gustavo Flores-Macías, dean of the College of Public Coverage on the College of Maryland.
Mexico, he mentioned, is trying “a fragile stability of holding U.S. authorities completely happy 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 drag out of a trilateral commerce take care of 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 prime to a Mexican financial system closely depending on cross-border commerce.
And on Thursday, Trump shocked Mexican officers by declaring he would impose sanctions on nations that promote oil to Cuba.
Meantime, an argument arose final week surrounding the mysterious seize in Mexico of Ryan Marriage ceremony, the previous Canadian Olympic snowboarder who faces federal prices in California of operating a billion-dollar drug-trafficking ring.
Sheinbaum dismissed experiences that FBI brokers on the bottom in Mexico participated within the arrest of Marriage ceremony, who, based on U.S. authorities, had been hiding for years in Mexico.
Sheinbaum insisted that Marriage ceremony turned himself in on the U.S. Embassy in Mexico Metropolis and, at a information briefing, displayed {a photograph} that she mentioned depicted Marriage ceremony outdoors the embassy.
However Canadian media mentioned the picture was in all probability pretend, a creation of synthetic intelligence. Sheinbaum dodged questions in regards to the picture’s authenticity. Marriage ceremony’s lawyer, Anthony Colombo, disputed Sheinbaum’s account that Marriage ceremony turned himself in. “He was arrested,” Colombo informed reporters outdoors the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, the place Marriage 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 prepared to go to maintain Trump completely happy.
“It might be very very regarding — and definitely unlawful underneath Mexican regulation — 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 befell with out the involvement of Mexican authorities.”
Particular correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
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