United States President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that former United States ambassador to El Salvador Ronald Johnson is his pick for ambassador to Mexico during his second term.
“I am pleased to nominate Ronald (Ron) Johnson to serve as the United States Ambassador to Mexico. Ron will work closely with our great Secretary of State Nominee, Marco Rubio, to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through strong America First Foreign Policies,” Trump said on social media.
Johnson — an army veteran and former official with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) — served as ambassador to El Salvador during the final 16 months of Trump’s first term as president.
The president-elect wrote on the social media platform that he owns, Truth Social, that as ambassador to El Salvador, Johnson “worked tirelessly with Salvadoran authorities and our team to reduce violent crime and illegal migration to the lowest levels in History.”
“… Congratulations Ron. Together, we will put an end to migrant crime, stop the illegal flow of Fentanyl and other dangerous drugs into our Country and, MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!” Trump wrote.
If his appointment is approved by the U.S. Senate, Johnson — who shares his name with a Republican Party senator from Wisconsin – will replace Ken Salazar as U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
Salazar, a former U.S. senator and secretary of the interior during Barrack Obama’s first term as president, has been ambassador to Mexico since 2021. He succeeded Christopher Landau, who was ambassador to Mexico during Trump’s first term as president and was tapped by the president-elect this week to serve as deputy secretary of state under Rubio.
Johnson will be tasked with a key role in the second Trump administration — helping to manage the United States’ relationship with its largest trading partner, a country with which it shares a 3,145-kilometer-long border that is currently far too porous for the president-elect’s liking.
In late November, Trump pledged to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican and Canadian exports to the United States on the first day of his second term as U.S. president due to what he called the “long-simmering problem” of migrants and drugs entering the U.S. via Mexico and Canada.
He said that the tariffs would remain in effect “until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!”
Johnson could play a key role in the Trump administration’s negotiations with Mexico as it seeks to achieve those stated objectives.
Who is Ron Johnson?
A 2019 U.S. Department of State report published after Johnson’s nomination as ambassador to El Salvador noted that Johnson had “served the United States government for over four decades, first as an officer in the U.S. Army, and then as a member of the intelligence community.”
Prior to taking up the ambassador’s position in El Salvador, he served as the CIA’s Science and Technology Liaison to the U.S. Special Operations Command, in Tampa, Florida, according to the report.
“Previously (2013-2107), he was Special Advisor to the U.S. Southern Command in Miami managing collaboration between the Command and the Intelligence Community, the State Department, the CDC, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, USAID and others,” the State Department said.
The State Department report also noted that Johnson had had “substantive engagement on a wide range of regional issues including refugees, counternarcotics, counterterrorism, human rights and tropical virus disease control.”
It said that he had lived in Latin America for more than five years and noted that he speaks Spanish.
In his social media post on Tuesday, Trump highlighted that Johnson “served our Country for over twenty years with the Central Intelligence Agency after a distinguished career in the U.S. Army as a Green Beret.”
“He graduated from the National Intelligence University with a Master of Strategic Intelligence,” he added.
A statement published by the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador in January 2021 to announce the end of Johnson’s term as ambassador noted that he arrived in the Central American country in 2019 with his wife, Alina Johnson. Johnson has four children and five grandchildren, according to a short profile that appeared on the website of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador.
Sheinbaum: ‘We’re going to defend our sovereignty’
At her morning press conference on Wednesday, President Claudia Sheinbaum acknowledged that Trump had announced his pick for ambassador to Mexico.
Speaking more broadly about the bilateral relationship between Mexico and the United States, she stressed that she won’t allow Mexico to be subordinated in any “collaboration” or “coordination” that her government enters into with its U.S. counterpart.
The bilateral relationship will “always” be a relationship of “equals,” she said.
“We have to defend that,” she said before asserting that there was “a lot of subordination” during the 2006–2012 presidency of Felipe Calderón.
“With us, there won’t be. We’re going to collaborate [with the United States] … but without subordination,” Sheinbaum said.
She said that Mexico will continue to collaborate with the United States on efforts to combat drug trafficking to the U.S. but emphasized that Mexico wants the U.S. to do its part to reduce the number of weapons flowing south.
“It’s not just a matter of drug trafficking … but also the violence generated in Mexico with the entry of weapons [from the U.S.],” Sheinbaum said.
“… We want a reduction in violence and construction of peace,” she said.
“We want homicides and other high-impact crimes to go down, many of which are linked to organized crime,” Sheinbaum said, adding that achieving the objective requires a reduction in the number of weapons coming into Mexico from the United States.
“That’s why I say that with this ambassador or others, we’re going to defend our sovereignty, our condition of equality [with the United States], and we’re going to collaborate and cooperate on everything that is required, but always in the interest of the people of Mexico and the nation,” she said.
Mexico News Daily
Claudia, Claudia, Claudia;
You really need to wake up and smell some Oaxacan coffee. Your country is just not equal to the US and with President Trump you need to understand your place. I know this sounds harsh but if you do understand the facts you will be able to have a good relationship with the US. If you don’t then look towards Venezuela to see how Communism works out.
Take a look at the trade balance.
Dude: you need to wake up and smell some apple pie. You need to know YOUR place. What’s wrong with saying Mexico will collaborate, but not be subservient? How dare another nation defend its sovereignty! This is not the US and Mexico relationship from 1975, 1985, or even 2005. Mexico is not some little backwater. Look for other nations to follow Claudia’s example. And soon.
The US simply can’t throw its weight around like it used to. Mexico is a rising, middle-income capitalist power with a strong sense of purpose and social cohesion. The United States is a nation in decline along so many vectors I don’t have the space to list them all here.
And the guns flooding over the border from the US to Mexico? Of course the US bears most of the responsibility for that! Kudos to Claudia for telling the truth. We need more politicians with a spine who are willing to tell is like it is. On the other hand, leadership in the US is so incompetent and corrupt it can’t even pass common-sense gun control legislation and control the gun trade.
The US is rapidly becoming the (scary) laughingstock of the world. You really, really need to get a grip. And fast.
Thank you Roger L. for straightening out Roger L. and all others who think that Mexico should be treated disrespectufully.
This comment is counterproductive and unnecessary.
MND, it’s your responsibility to edit. Muchas gracias.
I am glad that MND is not into censorship.
Drugs flow north into USA due to insane demand & cartel profiteering and guns flow south due to demand from cartel criminal organization. The US has problems, and the #1 problem is a 36 trillion debt thank you Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden but I do not agree we are in decline. China, EU, Brazil, Argentina and many more industrial countries have same kind of problems and a myriad of other issues. I love Mexico and own property in the Baja, but Mexico has a massive Cartel problem that needs to be dealt with, but nothing is ever done. The US is largest economy in the world @ $27 trillion vs Mexico at #11 with a $1.7 trillion economy. Remittances from US to Mexico is $68 billion. Let’s see if the new administration has a plan to fix the border and stop the cartels.
I live in Mexico and an edir a bilingual newspaper here. I also am a former professor of international relatilns and a fprmer leader of a major ptogressive organization in US politics. What Isee in Mexico is a counyry on the move; unified, optimistic, educated, and growing. What I see in my home country is Negativity,disunity, internal fighting ,dumb ideas ,and a country in decline
I have.
Met President shine bomb and been very impressed. She is a 1000 times the leader. Trump could ever dream to be and she is managing the course of Mexico for a bright and brilliant future. Our current administration in the U. S is heading us towards disaster. I predict that Mexico will be America’s equal in every way cery soon..Its manufacturing is growing by billions every year, its people more educated and Able to compete in roll stages in roll marketplaces every year.
But most Important the mexican people are geared for the future and the leadership of mexico has now geared for the future. This is not so in the united states
I live in Mexico and an edit a bilingual newspaper here. I also am a former professor of international relatilns and a former leader of a major progressive organization in US politics. What Isee in Mexico is a country on the move; unified, optimistic, educated, and growing. What I see in my home country is negativity,disunity, internal fighting ,dumb ideas ,and a country in decline
I have met President Sheinbaum and been very impressed. She is a 1000 times a better thinker and leader thanTrump could ever dream to be and she is managing the course of Mexico for a bright and brilliant future. Our current administration in the U. S is heading us towards disaster. I predict that Mexico will be America’s equal in every way very soon..Its manufacturing is growing by billions every year, its people more educated and able to compete in global stages in global marketplaces every year.
But most Important the Mexican people are geared for the future and the leadership of Mexico has now geared for the future. This is not so in the United States. Empires rise and empires fall…it may be Americas turn soon
See comment above