Billionaire businessman Carlos Slim will be among the Mexicans present at the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States in Washington D.C. on Monday.
Francisco Cervantes, president of Mexico’s influential Business Coordinating Council (CCE), told reporters this week that he will attend the inauguration with Slim, Mexico’s richest person and owner of companies such as Telcel, Telmex, Sanborns and Carso Infrastructure and Construction.
“We’re going to be in Washington, we’re invited to the dinner. We’re going to be there with the high-ranking United States officials to start having talks,” Cervantes said Wednesday after leaving a meeting at the National Palace between President Claudia Sheinbaum and Mexican and Canadian business leaders.
Sheinbaum not among inauguration invitees
Mexico will officially be represented at the inauguration of Trump by Ambassador to the United States Esteban Moctezuma. Sheinbaum confirmed this week that she hadn’t been invited to the quadrennial event.
According to the Associated Press, no foreign head of state has ever attended the inauguration of a U.S. president. But that is set to change on Monday as a number of world leaders including President Javier Milei of Argentina and President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador were invited to Trump’s inauguration and at least some are expected to attend.
The commencement of Trump’s second term as president could have an almost immediate impact on Mexico, as the president-elect has pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican exports on day one and promptly start his planned mass deportation operation.
Cervantes said Wednesday that the CCE has been working with the government on a plan aimed at averting tariffs on Mexican goods.
“We’re preparing to negotiate,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Sheinbaum said her administration would “have dialogue with the United States government” as it seeks to avoid the imposition of tariffs on Mexican exports.
She has previously said that Mexico would impose a reciprocal tariff on U.S. exports if the Trump administration were to impose a tariff on Mexican exports. Sheinbaum reiterated this week that the federal government’s plan to receive large numbers of deportees from the United States during Trump’s second term as president is “ready.”
Slim confident that Mexico will ‘do well’ during Trump’s second term
In November, Slim asserted that Mexico will “do well” during Trump’s second term as president because the Mexican and U.S. economies are “very complementary.”
Mexico and the United States are currently each other’s largest trade partners with two-way trade worth almost US $800 billion in the first 11 months of last year.
Sheinbaum has stressed that Mexico, the United States and Canada all benefit from the USMCA free trade pact, which is up for review in 2026.
However, Trump has railed against the United States’ large trade deficit with Mexico, and accused the country of being a transshipment hub for Chinese goods. He has said he will renegotiate the USMCA, and pledged that his proposed tariff on Mexican exports will remain in effect “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
Time will tell whether he keeps those promises.
With reports from El Economista and Infobae
The headline misrepresents the state of play in US inaugurations. Like the NYT, you find out that it’s not usual for foreign heads of state to be invited. Carlos Slim seems more the type of invitee that Trump would prefer, especially since he has an outized level of influence here. President Milei is positioning himself as a Monroe Doctrine cheerleader and ally, so that’s the reason there. President Bukele, for better or worse (I haven’t read many details), has achieved a remarkable level of crime reduction in El Salvador, which is very attractive to politicians who see themselves as no-nonsense boosters of consequences for criminal behavior.
Trump is blustering, as he usually does. US sanctions would probably hurt Mexico a lot this year and next, when the USMCA comes up for review. However, the day is approaching where it will be obvious that US sanctions on a country with the resources of Mexico will actually hurt the US more than it does Mexico. BRICS+ is already becoming an alternative to the US “Rules-based international order” i.e. the Monroe Doctrine for the world.
Oops: should be “Like the NYT, you find out . . . *much lower in the article.*”
Presidenta Claudia:
The fact that you were not invited is a compliment, not an insult. It means that he recognizes that you are intelligent, strong, and not someone to be bullied. He is and always has dodged such encounters, because he is un cobarde de mierda y siempre lo ha sido. Problema no hay, un cobarde de mierda y siempre lo ha sido.