How Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum won over Trump
MEXICO CITY — He called Colombian President Gustavo Petro a “sick man” and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator.” He once accused French President Emmanuel Macron of being a “publicity seeker” and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of being “dishonest and weak.”
President Trump is known for hurling harsh insults at world leaders.
There is also Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The US president described her as “fantastic”, “terrific” and “elegant” respectively.
On a social media to mail He offered his most glowing compliments yet on Thursday, praising Sheinbaum as “wonderful and extremely intelligent” and saying Mexicans “should be very happy” to have him as their leader.
Trump’s emphatic praise for Sheinbaum is surprising, given the marked differences in temperament and policy.
Sheinbaum, a leftist known for his patience and pragmatism, called Israel’s US-backed war in Gaza “genocide” and recently condemned the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
She disagrees with Trump on three of his staunch beliefs: that the U.S. should raise tariffs on Mexican imports, deport immigrants en masse, and attack drug traffickers inside Mexico.
But Sheinbaum is keenly aware of how Trump’s actions on trade, immigration and security could throw Mexico into turmoil, potentially threatening his own popularity and the legacy of the ruling party founded by his populist predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
So he took a strategic step, demanding frequent phone calls with Trump, making concessions on issues such as security, and showering him with direct praise. He described his meeting with Trump on Thursday as “productive and cordial” and added: “I had the pleasure of greeting his wife, Melania.”
So far his tactics have worked. Trump’s repeated threats to lift tariffs on Mexican goods and launch drone strikes against cartel targets have yet to materialize.
Managing Trump has been one of the biggest and perhaps most important focuses of Sheinbaum’s presidency. “This is not something that happened today,” she recently said of her relationship with Trump. “Communication, coordination and defending the Mexican people…are constant.”
Sheinbaum has been calming nerves in Mexico since his election in late 2024, just weeks after Trump assumed the presidency. He promised to forge strong ties with the new US leader, who is widely disliked here for his harsh criticism of immigrants. Sheinbaum vowed to emulate Kalimán, the beloved Mexican comic book superhero known for defeating villains with “peace and patience.”
He tried to earn Trump’s respect in other ways, holding mass public rallies that showed widespread support for his government. “We will always hold our heads up,” Trump said at an event shortly before taking office. “Mexico is a free, independent and sovereign country. We coordinate, we cooperate, but we do not submit.”
In some ways, Trump actually led to a rise in nationalism, increasing support for Sheinbaum. Polls show that most Mexicans approve of his handling of bilateral relations. Trump’s approval rating rose to 83% in May after he persuaded him to delay the imposition of heavy tariffs, according to a poll by El País newspaper. It currently hovers around 74 percent.
Still, some political analysts note that Trump may like Sheinbaum because, despite Sheinbaum’s talk of defending Mexico’s sovereignty, he has conceded to him on multiple occasions, especially on security issues.
“The list of concessions to Trump accumulated in a single year far surpasses in scope and depth those made by so-called more ‘obedient’ governments,” columnist Jorge Lomonaco wrote in El Universal newspaper.
Sheinbaum deployed Mexican troops to prevent migrants from reaching the US border. He sent dozens of drug offenders to the United States for trial, bypassing the standard extradition process to do so. He imposed tariffs on some imports from China and other countries, and his government reportedly paused oil shipments to Cuba; This signaled a possible end to what Sheinbaum praised as a “humanitarian” effort to help the embattled island nation, another possible target of Trump.
“Publicly, the Sheinbaum government has maintained a dominant and patriotic narrative, but privately it is clear that it has been quite docile towards the United States,” Lomonaco wrote.
Trump’s rhetoric with Mexico continues to be full of threats. While he called Sheinbaum a “good woman,” he also said in May that she was a “very good woman.” afraid of cartels He can’t even think straight.”
Many believe Trump’s decision to send US special forces to arrest Maduro and his wife in Caracas could embolden him to launch a US military strike against cartels in Mexico. This is a move that Sheinbaum would clearly see as crossing a red line and could possibly spark a political crisis here.
“I think there is a real risk of an attack on the cartels on Mexican soil, especially after what happened in Venezuela,” said Gustavo Flores-Macías, dean of the University of Maryland School of Public Policy.
He said Mexico was “trying to strike a delicate balance of keeping US officials happy without falling into the game of appeasing the White House and doing whatever Trump wants.”
Trump also threatened to withdraw from the trilateral trade agreement with Canada negotiated during his first term. The United States, Mexico and Canada are required to jointly review the free trade agreement by July 1, its sixth anniversary, to determine whether they plan to renew it for another 16 years or make changes. Trump called the deal “irrelevant” but it is essential to Mexico’s economy, which is heavily dependent on cross-border trade.
Meanwhile, a controversy erupted last week over the mysterious capture in Mexico of former Canadian Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding, who is accused of running a billion-dollar drug trafficking ring in California.
Sheinbaum denied reports that FBI agents working in Mexico participated in the arrest of Wedding, who, according to US officials, had been hiding in Mexico for years.
Sheinbaum insisted that Wedding surrender to the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and at a press conference displayed a photograph he said depicted Wedding in front of the embassy.
However, Canadian media said that the image was probably fake and a product of artificial intelligence. Sheinbaum left unanswered questions about the authenticity of the image. Wedding’s attorney, Anthony Colombo, disputed Sheinbaum’s statement that Wedding surrendered. “He was arrested,” Colombo told reporters outside the federal courthouse in Santa Ana, where Wedding pleaded not guilty. “He didn’t surrender.”
Sheinbaum managed to overcome the disagreement, but the incident once again raised questions about how far the Mexican president was willing to go to keep Trump happy.
“It would be very concerning and absolutely illegal under Mexican law for the FBI to operate and arrest an individual on Mexican soil,” Flores-Macías said, adding: “I think there are some clear indications that this happened without the involvement of Mexican authorities.”
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
