President-elect Donald Trump spoke with Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Wednesday. The call took place two days after he announced that he planned to impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Mexico on his first day in the White House.
Trump called the conversation “wonderful” and “very productive” in a post on Truth Social, saying the two leaders talked about the border control and how to combat the flow of illegal drugs — but these topical conversation points may be the only things on which the two could entirely agree.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during the High Level Summit between Mexican and US leaders and businessmen at the National Palace in Mexico City on October 15, 2024. (Photo by Yuri CORTEZ / AFP) (Photo by YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images)
Yuri Cortez/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier in the day, Sheinbaum confirmed that she had spoken with Trump, and that they did discuss the shared border, writing on X: “I had an excellent conversation with President Donald Trump. We discussed Mexico’s strategy on the migration phenomenon and I shared that caravans are not arriving at the northern border because they are being taken care of in Mexico.”
But Trump went further, proclaiming that the Mexican president “agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
In a follow-up post, he added, “Mexico will stop people from going to our Southern Border, effective immediately. THIS WILL GO A LONG WAY TOWARD STOPPING THE ILLEGAL INVASION OF THE USA.”
Sheinbaum then appeared to directly contradict the president-elect’s account of the conversation, posting on X: “In our conversation with President Trump, I explained to him the comprehensive strategy that Mexico has followed to address the migration phenomenon, respecting human rights. Thanks to this, migrants and caravans are assisted before they reach the border. We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to build bridges between governments and between peoples.”
Trump and Sheinbaum both also concur that they spoke about stemming the flow of illegal drugs, including fentanyl, into the U.S.
Sheinbaum wrote on X that they “discussed strengthening collaboration on security issues within the framework of our sovereignty and the campaign we are carrying out in the country to prevent the consumption of fentanyl.”
And following their call, Trump announced on Truth Social that part of his plan to address the fentanyl epidemic in the U.S. will be a large advertising campaign.
“I will be working on a large scale United States Advertising Campaign, explaining how bad Fentanyl is for people to use – Millions of lives being so needlessly destroyed,” Trump wrote. “By the time the Campaign is over, everyone will know how really bad the horror of this Drug is.”
The call was arranged after Trump this week announced plans to slap tariffs on Mexico, as well as Canada and China, in an effort to stem illegal border crossings and stop the flow of drugs entering the U.S.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum fired back, warning him not to start a trade war that she said would hurt the U.S.
“President Trump, it is not with threats nor with tariffs that migration and drug consumption in the U.S. will be dealt with,” Sheinbaum said at a press conference, reading from a letter she’d written to Trump. “These great challenges require cooperation and mutual understanding.”
She also disputed Trump’s claims about migration and drugs, and she blamed the U.S. for Mexico’s drug war — pointing to U.S. consumption and American guns.
“We don’t make guns, we don’t consume synthetic drugs. Those killed by crime to meet the demand for drugs in your country are unfortunately our responsibility,” she said.
The swift rebuke was a departure from Sheinbaum’s mentor, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had a chummy relationship with Trump during his first term.
When Trump similarly threatened tariffs on Mexico and to shut the border in 2018, the two men negotiated a deal to beef up Mexican immigration enforcement with U.S. support, reducing the numbers at the border — and Trump dropped his threats.