During her daily press briefing, in front of a world map, Ms. Sheinbaum dryly proposed renaming North America “América Mexicana”, or “Mexican America”, because a founding document dating from 1814, which preceded the constitution Mexican, designated it thus.
“That sounds good, right?” she added sarcastically. She also noted that the Gulf of Mexico has had that name since 1607.
That exchange began to answer a broader question that lingers about bilateral relations between the two regional powers: how the newly elected Ms. Sheinbaum would respond to Mr. Trump’s heavy-handed diplomatic approach and his promises of mass deportations and crushing taxes on trading partners like Mexico?
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Ms. Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who came from a class-based populism similar to Mr. Trump’s, even though he leaned left, was able to establish a relationship with Mr. Trump as ally, and his government began blocking migrants from traveling to the north under pressure from the United States, which was a boon for Mr. Trump.
But it was unclear whether Mexico’s first female president, a scientist and leftist lacking the folk populism that propelled Mr. López Obrador to power, would be able to make the same connection.
While Wednesday’s joke quickly made the rounds on social media, it also set the tone for what the relationship between Ms. Sheinbaum and Mr. Trump could be in the years to come.
-“Humor can be a good tactic, it projects strength, which is what Trump responds to. “It was probably the right call on this issue,” said Brian Winter, vice president of the New York-based Council of the Americas. “While President Sheinbaum knows it won’t work on everything – Trump and his administration will demand serious engagement from Mexico on the big issues of immigration, drugs and trade.”
It comes after other harsh but collaborative responses from Sheinbaum regarding Trump’s proposals.
Regarding Mr. Trump’s proposal to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican imports, Ms. Sheinbaum warned that if the new US administration imposed tariffs on Mexico, hers would respond with similar measures. She said any form of tax was “unacceptable and would lead to inflation and job losses in the United States and Mexico.”
She adopted a more conciliatory tone on the immigration issue, aligning with Mexico’s years-long effort to prevent migrants from traveling to the north of the country, under growing pressure from the United States. .
After initially saying her government would push the Trump administration to expel migrants directly to their countries, she said in January that Mexico would be open to accepting deportees from other countries, but could limit it to certain nationalities or request compensation.
