Christopher Landau, the former United States ambassador to Mexico, has been selected by President-elect Donald Trump to be the U.S. deputy secretary of state. Landau must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate before being sworn in.
The nomination was well-received in Mexico, where Landau was stationed from 2019 to 2021, during Trump’s first term.
“It’s a good thing [for us] because Ambassador Landau did a very good job [here],” President Sheinbaum said during her daily press conference on Monday. “I met him while serving as mayor [of Mexico City] and he knows our country quite well.”
Trump made the announcement on Sunday in a post on his social media website Truth Social, saying Landau would work with Sen Marco Rubio “to promote our Nation’s security and prosperity through an America First Foreign Policy.” Trump selected Rubio, who was born in Florida to Cuban immigrants, to be his secretary of state.
Trump also praised Landau for “[working] tirelessly with our team to reduce illegal migration to the lowest levels in History” while he served as ambassador to Mexico.
In a post on the social platform X, Landau, a lawyer and the son of a veteran U.S. diplomat who served as ambassador to three Latin American nations, expressed gratitude for the nomination.
A mis amigos 🇲🇽: muchos de Ustedes me han instado a volver a México. Su apoyo y amistad realmente me han conmovido. Si el Senado 🇺🇸me ratifica en este nuevo cargo, obviamente la relación entre nuestros países seguirá siendo una de mis máximas prioridades. Aunque no tenga el…
— Christopher Landau (@ChrisLandauUSA) December 9, 2024
Landau thanked his Mexican friends for their support and friendship in a separate Spanish-language post. “If the Senate ratifies me … the relationship between our countries … would continue to be one of my maximum priorities,” he wrote.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Landau would likely focus on several issues of particular importance to Mexico, including illegal immigration to the United States and tariffs purportedly aimed at jump-starting U.S. manufacturing.
The New York Times reported that, since leaving his post in Mexico City, Landau has been working in the Washington office of the Ellis George law firm, a self-described “leader in business litigation.”
Still, Landau continued to keep abreast of Mexican issues.
In April 2021, Landau criticized then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for adopting a passive attitude toward Mexican drug cartels.
In June 2021, he published an opinion piece in the Arizona Republic criticizing the U.S. strategy of addressing skyrocketing drug overdoses by “asking Mexico to pursue and extradite kingpins” rather than focusing on domestic drug education and addiction prevention.
With reports from El Financiero, The New York Times and Aristegui Noticias
