President Claudia Sheinbaum smiled broadly as she entered the Treasury Hall of the National Palace on Tuesday morning, seemingly still on a high from her successful call with U.S. President Donald Trump.
After her conversation with Trump on Monday, Sheinbaum said that the possibility of U.S. military action in Mexico could be ruled out, even though the U.S. president said last Thursday that the United States was going to start hitting cartels on land.
At her morning press conference on Tuesday, she acknowledged the role the United States’ ambassador to Mexico played in ensuring the call was a success.
Among other issues, Sheinbaum spoke about the media’s reaction to her conversation with Trump, the latest of numerous telephone discussions she has had with her U.S. counterpart.
Sheinbaum expresses appreciation for US ambassador
A reporter asked the president her opinion about the message U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson posted to social media after Monday’s call between Sheinbaum and Trump.
On X, Johnson wrote: “Glad to have helped facilitate today’s productive call between @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @ClaudiaShein. After a year of the most cooperative and mutually beneficial U.S.-Mexico relationship in decades, there’s still much to be done but together we can build a brighter future for our citizens.”
Glad to have helped facilitate today’s productive call between @POTUS @realDonaldTrump and President @ClaudiaShein. After a year of the most cooperative and mutually beneficial 🇺🇸🇲🇽 relationship in decades, there’s still much to be done but together we can build a brighter…
— Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) January 13, 2026
Although her government has various differences with the Trump administration, Sheinbaum spoke in glowing terms about the U.S. ambassador, who began his tenure last May.
“When we’ve asked for support from the ambassador for dealings with the U.S. government, he has always helped us,” she said.
“… Obviously, he represents the government of the United States here, and we have a close relationship with them,” Sheinbaum said.
She subsequently thanked Johnson for the support he has provided to her government.
Sheinbaum said that Mexican officials spoke to the ambassador prior to Monday’s call with Trump “to explain what we intended to discuss” with the U.S. president.
“He was a facilitator to make sure the call went well,” she said.
Sheinbaum said on Monday that she and other officials also spoke to Johnson after the call with Trump.
Sheinbaum discusses media coverage of her call with Trump
A reporter asked the president about government opponents and critics who she said “use almost any pretext to promote [foreign] interference and interventionism in our country.”
Sheinbaum’s immediate response was to say that it was worth taking a look at today’s newspapers. She asserted that “those that disagree with us” — i.e., the government — “didn’t know what to say” about her call, given its success.
“They hoped there would be a problem in order to say, ‘Look, the president doesn’t have the capacity. The United States has to intervene.”
While many Mexican newspapers ran stories about Sheinbaum’s call with Trump on the front page of their Tuesday print editions, the paper most frequently criticized by the federal government, Reforma, did not.
On Monday, Sheinbaum said that “the opposition in Mexico” — of which she considers Reforma and some other newspapers to be a part — “has been seeking” to cultivate “a bad image of the Mexican government in the United States.”
She said that “this whole idea” that the Mexican government “protects organized crime” and is led by a “narco-president” comes from a “campaign” created by opponents of her administration.
“What are they seeking? What would they like? The intervention of the United States in Mexico, that’s the truth,” Sheinbaum said.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies (peter.davies@mexiconewsdaily.com)
