President Claudia Sheinbaum has said on repeated occasions that she believes Mexico will have a good relationship with the United States during Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president. But how have other Mexican politicians reacted to the return of Trump to the White House?
Here is a roundup of what Mexico’s party leaders, lawmakers and state governors have said since Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.
PAN president Jorge Romero calls Trump a ‘bully’
The national president of Mexico’s main opposition party, the National Action Party (PAN), described Trump as a “bully” at a press conference on Monday.
“To that bully called 4T, another bigger bully called Donald Trump has arrived,” Romero said.
4T is an abbreviation of “Fourth Transformation” — a nickname for both the federal government and the political transformation former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador is said to have initiated when he took office in late 2018.
Romero, a former lawmaker who took over the national leadership of the PAN last November, also responded to Trump’s mass deportation plan.
“We’re facing a critical situation that requires clear and humane responses,” he said.
“… We will not allow the government to ignore this threat and to continue failing in its responsibility to Mexican families. … We are not going to allow families to be thrown onto the street without any support,” Romero said.
The federal government on Monday revealed details of its plan to support Mexican immigrants deported from the United States during the second Trump administration.
MC leader warns of ‘consequences’ of second Trump presidency
Jorge Álvarez Máynez, national coordinator of the Citizens Movement (MC) party and a candidate in last year’s presidential election, took to the X social media platform to offer a view on the second Trump presidency.
El mundo vivirá las consecuencias de las decisiones que tome un hombre de 78 años los próximos 4 años.
Tus hijos, y los míos, vivirán las consecuencias. Él no.
— Jorge Álvarez Máynez (@AlvarezMaynez) January 20, 2025
“The world will live the consequences of the decisions a 78-year-old man takes during the next four years. Your children, and mine, will live the consequences. He won’t,” Álvarez wrote without providing any additional explanation of his post.
Mexico unwilling to give up ‘a single millimeter’ of sovereignty to US, says Senate leader
Gerardo Fernández Noroña, a ruling Morena party senator who has been president of the Senate since Sept. 1, said Monday that “we agree with coordination, communication and collaboration with the United States government.”
“But,” he added, “under no circumstance are we willing to give up a single millimeter of our sovereignty and our national independence.”
The politician’s remarks came after Trump signed a number of executive orders directly related to Mexico, including one in which he outlined his intention to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Asked whether he would consider “ordering U.S. special forces into Mexico” to “take out” cartels, the U.S. president said it “could happen” and “stranger things have happened.”
(Mario Jasso/Cuartoscuro)
Fernández said that “the risk of a direct military intervention is unacceptable.”
“We’re an independent and sovereign nation, we’re pacifists, we’re not going to confront the United States army, but we’re not going to allow a military intervention,” he said.
PRI leader takes diplomatic approach
Alejandro Moreno, a federal senator and president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), issued a statement “greeting” Trump on the occasion of his inauguration as president of the United States.
He said that the PRI hopes that the Trump administration will be successful “in benefit of the North American people and the consolidation of a more integrated, democratic and globally competitive North America.”
“… We hope that the government of Mexico is up to the challenges the region will face in order to be able to respond with strategy and intelligence and with character and determination to resolve the economic, security, migration and trade issues and to emerge strengthened as a country and region,” Moreno said.
Governors reject ‘any attempt of external interference’
The governors of Mexico’s 31 states and the mayor of Mexico City all endorsed a Jan. 21 National Governors’ Conference (CONAGO) statement “in defense of our sovereignty and the wellbeing of Mexicans.”
“CONAGO categorically rejects any attempt of external interference that violates our national sovereignty,” the governors said a day after Trump indicated that U.S. military action against cartels in Mexico wasn’t out of the question.
Esta mañana, las y los Gobernadores que integramos la CONAGO (@CONAGO_oficial) suscribimos este documento en respaldo a nuestra Presidenta, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo (@Claudiashein), y a las y los mexicanos que viven en el exterior, a quienes siempre les tendremos los brazos… pic.twitter.com/ow245uv8wW
— Marina del Pilar (@MarinadelPilar) January 21, 2025
“In defense of our independence and self-determination, we make a call to respect the principles of non-intervention and mutual respect between nations,” the statement said.
The state governors and the Mexico City mayor also expressed their “complete support” for Mexican communities outside Mexico, “particularly those located in the United States.”
PAN senator pleased with (probable) designation of cartels as terrorists
PAN Senator Lilly Téllez said on X on Tuesday that she was “pleased” that “my initiative to designate cartels as terrorists is reality,” even though it occurred in the United States rather than Mexico.
She made that remark even though the official designation hasn’t yet occurred.
Téllez, a former journalist, said that designating cartels as terrorist organizations has been “her greatest wish since 1999 when I reported on cartels and survived an attack.”
She said that Trump’s executive order on cartels “is a first step toward the truth: in Mexico there is a narco state.”
In another X post, Téllez said that “the threat for Mexico is Morena, not Trump.”
“Morena protects the cartels, Trump goes against them,” she wrote.
Mexico should seek ‘gradual disconnection’ from US, says Morena lower house leader
In a column for Milenio newspaper that he also published on his personal website, Ricardo Monreal said that it was “tough” for Mexicans “to go to bed [on Jan. 19] knowing that we’re the main trade partner of the United States and to wake up [on Jan. 20] finding out that we’re the source of the main ills that afflict our neighbors to the north.”
“We’re a toxic neighbor for the new administration. The main threat for their security, their economy and their wellbeing is not Gaza or Ukraine or Iran but rather Mexico,” wrote the ruling party’s leader in the Chamber of Deputies.
The politician was referring to Trump’s executive orders regarding the “emergency” at the Mexico-U.S. border, Mexican cartels, trade and other issues.
“In the immediate term, as President Claudia Sheinbaum has established, we will gladly cooperate, collaborate and coordinate with our neighbor in order to confront problems such as fentanyl and irregular migration, but [we will do so] without kneeling down [or] subordinating ourselves,” Monreal wrote.
“… In the medium and long term we have to start the second independence of Mexico. In other words the gradual, orderly and planned disconnection from … [the country that] has decided to close itself off and fence itself in,” he said, making an apparent reference to Trump’s border wall.
“Let’s be the second or third [trade] partner of the rest of the world, of the emerging powers, taking advantage [of the fact] that we’re one of the countries with the most free trade agreements on the planet,” Monreal wrote.
“That means turning on the motor of the internal market, promoting a common market with Latin America and welcoming to these lands emerging powers, their products, goods and investment,” he said without mentioning any specific countries.
“It might take us a generation to carry out this restructuring but we have overcome worse heartaches,” Monreal said.
Mexico News Daily
Not all those from the United States are MAGA. Many of us are thankful for our beloved Mexican (and Canadian) neighbors. We are appalled by the insanity of the orange menace. I have lived in Sonora for over 24 years and if I’m lucky will spend the rest of my life here and not have to return “north.”
Well said. Love name Orange Menace
AGREED tomatah1!
I didn’t read everything, but Trump is a bully and doesn’t care about people. Those who voted for him are going to realize it was a huge mistake as everything Trump wants to do is going to reverberate in every aspect of what affects everyone. Such a very sad time for everyone. I just hope he doesn’t see himself as another hitler and starts executing those he doesn’t like. Namely immigrants.
TRUMP wants to be dictator for life. you watch, and the killings if he starts will be like Hitler, all secret. We have to watch closely what he does, and VANCE who is a total snake.
What will the designation of cartels as terrorist organisation change in Mexico?
Since someone asked:
Declaring drug cartels to be terrorists allows the president to use the national security apparatus (satellite surveillance, electronic intercepts, special operations, foreign intelligence sharing, etc.) instead of being limited to traditional law enforcement.
Trump probably thinks that designating the Mexican cartels as terrorists will allow him to (with the stroke of a pen) sweep the US border states looking for cartel but in reality it will be a drag net for undocumented immigrants