Trump Praises Mexico’s President After Phone Call Addressing Border, Drug Trafficking, And Trade

President Donald Trump said that he spoke to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum over the phone on Thursday about multiple issues and praised the leader, whom he has recently criticized.

Trump said the call with Sheinbaum “focused on the Border, stopping Drug Trafficking, and Trade” and went “extremely well for both Countries.” He added that he hopes to set up a meeting between the United States and Mexico soon.

“Mexico has a wonderful and highly intelligent Leader — They should be very happy about that!” Trump said.

Sheinbaum said her call with Trump was “productive and cordial.”

“We continue to make progress on trade issues and the bilateral relationship,” she added.

Trump and Sheinbaum have butted heads throughout the past year over Trump’s tariffs and his suggestion that the United States could target drug traffickers in Mexico. Last May, Trump reportedly pressured Sheinbaum to allow U.S. troops to go into the country to fight the drug cartels, but Sheinbaum was not willing to give U.S. forces the green light. Trump then blasted Sheinbaum, saying she was “afraid” and “can’t even think straight.”

The Mexican president doubled down on her opposition to Trump sending U.S. troops to her country in August after The New York Times reported that Trump quietly signed an order to use military force against drug cartels in foreign countries.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” Sheinbaum said, adding, “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out. It is not part of any agreement, far from it. When it has been brought up, we have always said no.”

After the United States captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, Trump said the cartels are “running Mexico,” adding that “we have to do something” about drugs “pouring through Mexico.” He again said Sheinbaum was “afraid” to deal with Mexican cartels.

As the United States conducts strikes on suspected drug runner boats in international waters in the Caribbean, Trump also suggested last week that he would authorize strikes on drug runners on highly-trafficked land passages, which could include Mexico.

“We’re going to hit the cartels,” he told the New York Post. “We know their routes. We know everything about them. We know their homes. We know everything about them. We’re going to hit the cartels.”

Trump’s tariffs have also represented a conflict between him and the Mexican leader. After Trump hit Mexico, Canada, and China with tariffs over what he called their failure to address fentanyl trafficking, Sheinbaum said Mexico would retaliate, but the country paused its retaliatory tariffs on the United States as it sought to negotiate a trade deal, and many products from Mexico are protected under the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA).

On Wednesday, Mexico’s economy chief Marcelo Ebrard met with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in Washington, D.C., to discuss potential changes to the USMCA, Reuters reported. The USMCA went into effect in 2020 and is up for a joint review in July, when the United States, Mexico, and Canada must come to an agreement for the pact to be extended.