MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’ s strategy of managing a tumultuous relationship with President Donald Trump may be running up against wider regional tensions and lack of willingness by the Trump administration to make concessions, experts say.
Since Trump took office, the freshly elected Mexican president has been lauded, and even dubbed a sort of “Trump whisperer,” for being able to offset the brunt of U.S. tariffs that have dealt a blow to other foreign economies. Sheinbaum has done so by cracking down on cartels with a heavier hand than her predecessor, delivering dozens of cartel affiliates to American authorities and pointing to lower fentanyl seizures at the U.S. border.
It was an exchange she said Thursday that she hoped to formalize. When the two leaders spoke in February, Trump tied the fentanyl coming from Mexico to the tariff threat, she said.
“So what do we propose?” Sheinbaum said at her morning press conference Thursday. “If this problems reduces, then we evidently want to see that 25% (tariff) shrink.”
But now, observers say Sheinbaum is increasingly backed against a wall. Michael Shifter, senior fellow at the Inter-American Dialogue, said Sheinbaum is now having to walk “a fine line” with Trump that appears to only be getting more complicated.