Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum brushed aside U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion on Thursday that Mexico “does what we tell them to do” as she responded by declaring that “In Mexico, the people govern.”
Sheinbaum made her initial comments in a video released on Thursday, but she doubled down on them during a press conference in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, on Friday.
En México, el pueblo manda. pic.twitter.com/XR1bA6lTDr
— Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein) August 14, 2025
“I’ve said this several times: President Trump has a way of speaking. But as I said yesterday, the only one who rules in Mexico is the people,” she said. “It’s that simple, and it’s that important.”
Trump’s public branding of Mexico as subservient is the latest in a string of provocations that Sheinbaum has had to deal with. The Mexican president has avoided direct confrontation with Trump despite the U.S. president’s aggressive approach, instead emphasizing Mexico’s sovereignty, and earning praise for keeping a “cool head” when dealing with her U.S. counterpart.
Trump’s comments to reporters came in the Oval Office on Thursday after he signed an executive order honoring the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act.
While bragging about his success at stemming the flow of immigration, Trump mocked his predecessor, Joe Biden for waiting on legislation to close the border.
“I had no legislation. I just said ‘We’re closing the borders’ and the whole world understood it because they … really respect this country again,” Trump said.
But now, Trump said, “Mexico does what we tell them to do. And Canada does what we tell them to do. Because we have the two borders … the northern border and southern border. And they were both horrible. But now … some people say it’s a miracle.”
Sheinbaum’s response came a few hours later, at the end of a video celebrating the recent opening of a new section of Chapultepec Park.
The president didn’t mention Trump by name, but she titled the social media post “En México, el pueblo manda” (“In Mexico, the people govern”), and concluded the video by saying “In case anybody has any doubts, this is a message from Mexico to the world: In Mexico, the people govern.”
Her message capped a week of repeated U.S. actions targeting Mexico. Last Friday, Aug. 8, she was forced to respond after The New York Times reported that Trump signed an executive order authorizing the Pentagon to target foreign drug cartels.
On Wednesday, the Mexican government responded to reports that a U.S. drone flew deep into Mexican airspace over an area considered a stronghold of the La Familia Michoacána drug cartel by saying it had requested the flyover.
“It’s not a military plane, it’s not a military drone,” said Security Minister Omar García Harfuch, adding that it was sent to support an ongoing investigation by Mexican authorities.
Also this week, Mexico transferred 26 high-profile prisoners to the U.S., an action that García Harfuch said was an act of “bilateral coordination” and “with full respect for our sovereignty.”
One newspaper columnist suggested this was more about “placating Trump than keeping Mexico safe.” García Harfuch denied this, saying the expulsion of the criminals was not linked to Mexico’s efforts to avoid higher U.S. tariffs.
At the same time, Mexico is seeking the extradition of a former director of the state-owned oil company Pemex — arrested in Texas on Tuesday — on corruption charges, while cautiously awaiting developments in the unrelated case of two Mexican executives indicted on charges of bribing Pemex officials.
The latter case is fraught with peril for Sheinbaum and her party since the alleged infractions occurred after Morena took control of the federal government in December 2018 with the inauguration of Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
With reports from Reforma, La Jornada, El Universal and El Financiero
