Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Hits Back At Trump With Fiery Letter
By: Alex Griffing Load Comments (Mediaite)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pulled no punches on Tuesday when she sent her reply to President-elect Donald Trump's threat of a sweeping 25% tariff on her country unless she stops illegal immigration and drug trafficking into the U.S.
Sheinbaum made clear in her letter that she believes the flow of immigrants crossing illegally from Mexico into the U.S. has already been greatly reduced and that the fentanyl crisis in the U.S. is fueling the drug cartel violence in Mexico.
She also said that Trump's plan doesn't actually address illegal immigration or drug trafficking and that Mexico would retaliate with tariffs of its own. "One tariff would be followed by another in response, and so on until we put at risk common businesses," she said, warning the outcome would cause inflation and unemployment in the U.S. and Mexico.
"Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours," Sheinbaum added.
She also told Trump that "encounters at the Mexico-United States border have decreased by 75% between December 2023 and November 2024." Trump's Monday night post on Truth Social concluded by saying, "This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular, Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!"
The Guardian questioned if Trump would even be able to impose such tariffs under the trade deal his administration brokered during his first term. "It is unclear if the president-elect's proposal would even be legal or possible, given that the three countries share a free trade agreement known as the USMCA that was negotiated during his previous term in the White House. But as analysts pointed out, Trump has never been one to abide by the rules," wrote the Guardian.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, meanwhile, replied with a much more conciliatory message. "This is a relationship that we know takes a certain amount of working on, and that's what we'll do," Trudeau told reporters Tuesday. "One of the really important things is that we be all pulling together on this."
Trudeau called an emergency meeting of the provincial leaders for Wednesday to address Trump's threat. The New York Timesreported that "Doug Ford, a Progressive Conservative and the premier of Ontario, the most populous province and the center of manufacturing in Canada, said that the announcement by Mr. Trump felt 'like a family member stabbing you right in the heart.'"
Read Sheinbaum's full letter below:
Dear President-elect Donald Trump,
I am writing to you regarding your statement on Monday, November 25, concerning migration, fentanyl trafficking, and tariffs.
You may not be aware that Mexico has developed a comprehensive policy to assist migrants from different parts of the world who cross our territory en route to the southern border of the United States. As a result, and according to data from your country's Customs and Border Protection (CBP), encounters at the Mexico-United States border have decreased by 75% between December 2023 and November 2024. Moreover, half of those who arrive do so through a legally scheduled appointment under the United States' CBP One program. For these reasons, migrant caravans no longer arrive at the border.
Even so, it is clear that we must work together to create a new labor mobility model that is necessary for your country, as well as address the root causes that compel families to leave their homes out of necessity. If even a small percentage of what the United States allocates to war were instead dedicated to building peace and fostering development, it would address the underlying causes of human mobility.
On another note, and for humanitarian reasons, Mexico has consistently expressed its willingness to help prevent the fentanyl epidemic in the United States from continuing. This is, after all, a public health and consumption problem within your society. So far this year, Mexican armed forces and prosecutors have seized tons of various types of drugs, 10,340 firearms, and have detained 15,640 individuals for violence related to drug trafficking.
Furthermore, the Mexican Congress is in the process of approving a constitutional reform to classify the production, distribution, and commercialization of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs as a serious crime without bail. However, it is publicly known that the chemical precursors used to produce this and other synthetic drugs are illegally entering Canada, the United States, and Mexico from Asian countries. This underscores the urgent need for international collaboration.
You must also be aware of the illegal trafficking of firearms into my country from the United States.
Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.
President Trump, migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs. What is needed is cooperation and mutual understanding to tackle these significant challenges.
For every tariff, there will be a response in kind, until we put at risk our shared enterprises. Yes, shared. For instance, among Mexico's main exporters to the United States are General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford Motor Company, which arrived in Mexico 80 years ago. Why impose a tariff that would jeopardize them? Such a measure would be unacceptable and would lead to inflation and job losses in both the United States and Mexico.
I am convinced that North America's economic strength lies in maintaining our trade partnership. This allows us to remain competitive against other economic blocs. For this reason, I believe that dialogue is the best path to understanding, peace, and prosperity for our nations. I hope our teams can meet soon to continue building joint solutions.
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She's right. Our demand for illegal drugs fuel the drug cartels
She's got the balls that Trudeau doesn't have. As a Canadian, I'm not at all proud of him, but I AM proud of her.
I look forward to the left wing becoming cheerleaders and apologists for the cartel.
Let me correct that for you. The Cartels now make more money smuggling humans across the US border than with drugs. Who was behind this? You guessed it, the current administration. Where are the missing 300,000 children lost by the current administration? Experts suspect they are in the sex trade right here in America. The last four years has been one of the saddest times for human smuggling and slavery right here in America.
The current President of Mexico is a cartel friendly degenerate.
The demand for drugs has already been there, and the Biden administration's doing little to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs from the Mexican cartels, and the left's overall failure to combat crime is the main cause of the drug crisis. Add to that the Mexican government's failure to find and prosecute the cartel members....she has no call to blame this problem on the US....
Supply and demand. Removing the supply does not remove the demand.
CBP 2025 Budget Might Aid Ambitious Goals for Fentanyl Seizure & More - GovCon Wire
Laredo Law Enforcement Crushes Drug Smuggling Operation with $3.7
Brownsville CBP Halts Drug Trafficking with $768K Cocaine Seizure at
These are just recent seizures by the CBP which is not operating as a political arm of either party, please stop maligning them with idiotic statements like this
Possibly the stupidest comment ever.
That too has been a cultural problem that started with American Mafia families in the 1950s and has little to do with politics
Sure she has. The drug problem is largely caused by American demand and the American made gun problem is caused by easy access to military grade weapons to the cartels.
MAGAs seem to expect everyone to just accept whatever Trump says and does. That will soon be true in America, but not elsewhere.
Every time Trump says something to anger another country, he weakens America. Of course, he probably strengthens his hold on MAGA, so he doesn't give a fuck about any other country.
That's because Trump tells them that all other world leaders respect and fear him, despite all the evidence showing otherwise.
What evidence would that be? Please be specific.
The entire UN laughing at his face?
Watch: Trump’s boast draws laughter at United Nations
Global leaders snub Trump and his nationalistic vision
North Korea snubs Trump
Why young royals snubbed Trump
A brief history of world leaders laughing at Trump
Those things should normally be an embarrassment to Americans, but then....they voted him in, didn't they.
This is the simple, awful truth: a majority of Americans is happy with the arrival of a fascist dictatorship.
A very slim majority of 1.6% while 18 to 20 million sat out the election.
For now. they may be.
It isn't fascist or a dictatorship yet. There are many checks and balances to be played out.
Be patient Bob, nothing's happened yet.
I see none. Law enforcement? The courts? Congress?
I don't think so.
Got anything current? The majority of your sources are from 2018
I disagree. I think that Americans do not realize what they have done by electing Trump again and the threat that his election poses to our systems of governance. I also think that the slight majority of voters was propelled not by his promises to rebuild American governance in his image, but with the so called "kitchen table" issues. The obvious fact that his proposed economic plans can't possibly work the way he describes them aside, more people believed him when he said he would decrease the price of groceries.
Also, people of the "I've got mine and everyone must work as hard as I did to get where I am" mentality is prevalent in this country. The Democratic Party is perceived as being "socialist" in nature. Once again, it does not matter if this is a true perception or not, as long as it is the perception of the majority of the voters.
And on voters, to say that half of the country "...is happy with the arrival of a fascist dictatorship," when the polls from the last election show that only 29.3% (my calculation) of the eligible voting population chose Trump. Using the same metrics, Harris got only 28.4%, only 0.94% difference. This election was close by any sense of the word. It did not show that the people of America want someone to ride in and change the face of government, but that never stopped a politician from claiming a "mandate" by a "landslide." Trump is a politicians' politician: A con-man at heart and the value structure of "Me! Me! Me!" To that extent, he does represent the less than a third of voting eligible people who chose to vote for him.
I agree. But "ignorance of the law is no excuse".
That majority has made a choice, however foolish. The consequences will come, whether that majority really wanted them or not. Democracy requires a minimum of effort, and the American public didn't make that effort.
I misspoke when I said "slight majority". What I meant to say was a slight almost-majority. He does not have, last time I checked, even a full majority (49.97%).
Well, if you want to look at it from another perspective, 50.03% of people who voted did not vote for Trump.
Oh, I agree: a great number of Americans did not vote for MAGA... but they're going to get a fascist kleptocracy all the same.
Life can be a real bitch.
[deleted][✘]
Bob - the "majority" was fulfilled according to the Constitution - the "Majority" were the Electoral Votes - 312 versus 226 - 60.1% is a majority.
Since the majority of voters do not determine the result of a nationwide vote, shouldn't the electoral college system be considered at least part way to being AUTOCRATIC? I'm sure Trump will fix that to be the way HE wants it. LOL
The vote will be limited to men with a significant fortune.
...and support the "RIGHT" Party.
You mean the majority of my example are from when he was POTUS?
So, you're holding Mexico blameless for the trafficking of women, children, and drugs into the US?
Why should this cartel enabler be "respected"?
Maybe Trump will build a wall. Maybe Mexico will pay for it.
Maybe Americans would rather pay for a wall than give money to unchecked illegals
Count me in!
[deleted][✘]
You don’t think a wall would slow the flow to a trickle, making a difference? You think illegals and drugs could flow across the border as easily as if there was no wall in place? If so you shouldn’t be insulting others about a low IQ.
Any proof to that claim?
It takes determined people less than ten minutes to scale the average wall;
less than 15 minutes remove two vertical portions with a portable saw. A bit longer if they install hinges and camouflage the new gate.
It takes years to detect and discover most of the tunnels running under the walls.
It still slows the flow of illegals to a trickle compared to a wide open border.
Not in the least. If you had to climb over a 10 foot wall, are you saying that you wouldn't be able to? 25 foot?
Drugs go through normal entrance ports, do you really think individuals are able to carry enough drugs on them to make a difference? We're talking tons, not ounces.
Illegals would not be slowed much at all. Sections of the wall that Trump did put in place are already rusting away.
Because of the way it was phrased I would not have taken the low IQ comment personally, but apparently I hit a nerve. The Chinese built a huge wall. Didn't help them much.
Too bad there is no wide open border. It is basically the same as when Trump left.
Steve Bannon tried that scam, Drumph pardoned him!
You must have been scammed by Steve Bannon.
Why should a convicted felon be "respected".
As an able bodied male, yeah, i could, but i sure as hell couldn’t go through it as easily or as quickly as if it weren't there. What about women, children, illegals that aren’t in great shape? If they made it over it would take them a very long time.
most of the illegal drugs come across unprotected parts of the border. That’s a known fact. Google is your friend.
totally stupid and irrational statement.
get real, it was phrased that way in order to insult. No, it didn’t hit a nerve, for that to happen i would have to give the posters opinion a micro-iota of weight, i don’t.
1st one cuts through, every single one after goes through like there is no fence.
Once the tunnel has been dug the fence is immaterial to the process.
Once the ladder is there these people that have walked hundreds of miles to get there, would have no problems with a little ladder climb.
It is what is known as an ALTERNATE FACT . It is only some people's friend if you actually read what Google finds.
CBP data indicates most illicit drug substances are smuggled through POEs, contrary to common belief that they are smuggled between ports of entry, particularly in areas without fencing or other physical barriers.
FYI, POE = Port of Entry
Trump Boasted That His Border Wall Was ‘Virtually Impenetrable.’ Then an 8-Year-Old Girl Climbed a Replica
Google is not apparently your friend.
It was directed at people with very low IQ's. Not my fault if people take offense thinking it was directed at them. They should know their own IQ.
Not at all true.
It wasn't true in 2019,
Not true for 2023 or 2024 either.
Would have been maybe more useful if she had sent this letter a month ago.
Like anyone gives a flying fuck about what Mexico thinks.
Mexico needs a stark reminder of which country is the economic super power; and which has a corrupt government (which she is a part of) that is run by the drug cartels.
Here letter wouldn't have made shit of difference.
How about we flush all of the illegal immigrants that Mexico allowed to cross our southern border back into Mexico? They can handle an influx of 12 million plus illegals I am sure./S
Thank you for proving what I said about Trump supporters.
Ahh, MAGA. Normalizing bullying on an international scale. How lucky we all are.
How about those goober off-spring living in your basement start harvesting agricultural products, filling potholes and performing garbage pick-up ?
Bullying is another standard fascist behavior.
What I'm seeing here is an arrogant egotistical attitude adopted by Trump supporters. I guess since they saw that it created a win for their hero, it pays for them to emulate it. And as for the Trump despisers, the lamenting and criticism are just, as Bob Dylan would say, just blowing in the wind. Is it possible to hibernate for 4 years? Maybe if they have a job in Niagara Falls NY or Detroit they can commute. Canadians near the border could make a bundle if they were to provide Americans with 4-year leases.
America will have an election in four years.
Belarus, too.
Both will be... predictable.
“America will have an election in four years.”
That’s not what i heard.
Belarus, probably predictable, but as for America, even Alan Lichtman was wrong.
Yeah, Drumph did say "Vote for me and you won't have to vote again!"
MAGA will win. In 2028, 2032, 2036, 2040, ...
Won't work, Drumph won't allow work visa's.
Why would they need a visa to work in the USA if they're US citizens? They would work in the US and live in Canada.
Those are the current rules, you live in an autocratic state, you should realize how fast things can change.
I'm okay, but God help you.
God has nothing to do with it. False churches, bigotry and greed.
Okay, I'll tell Her not to bother. Yes, greed seems to be a favourite sin in America. By the way, for what you consider to be an autocratic nation, most of the people in China are not so unhappy, as they would be in a nation where about half the nation is unhappy with their government ALL the time.
Interesting topic.
Happiness is relative: if my conditions are better today than yesterday, I'm happy. So a people whose conditions have improved so VASTLY as those of the Chinese over the last half century would logically be happy. Such a people might turn a blind eye to some unpleasant phenomena.
Happiness is also previsional: if a person believes that conditions tomorrow will be better than today, they're logically happy. America‘s Gen Z is convinced that tomorrow will be worse than today. Not happy.
So... Who's right?
Is there a nation on Earth that doesn't have any unpleasant phenomena? As Orwell may have indicated, some are more equal than others.
Search "happiness index". That's a thing.
Usually, Scandinavians are at the top. Logically.
I know that Canada has always rated pretty high on the "happiness" lists as well.
Isn't Canada Scandinavian?
Oh, come on, you already know. Canada is 9/10ths Scottish and 1/10th French.
Inuit
Oh, you're talking about BEFORE colonization. Of course, Canada was entirely indigenous, just as America was.
I'n'it?
When I referred to ten provinces only, I guess I did leave the Northwest Territories and Nunavut out of it - so yes, add the Inuit, formerly known as Eskimos. Since the Reservations that are occupied by the indigenous tribes are mostly located within the provinces I didn't indicate them as being separate. I hope that is accurate enough.
T'is. I'n'it?
I watched Pygmalion a couple days ago.
I had no idea what you meant by "I'n'it?"
As for Pygmalion, did you mean the play or the 1938 movie with Leslie Howard?
The Leslie Howard movie. Now I have to find a copy of My Fair Lady.
Reference to My Fair Lady requires me to tell this story. In my first year of teaching English at a private high school in China there was an evening when some of the teachers and some of the students would put on a stage show for the school. I came up with the idea of doing a routine to the song The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly in the Plain, because it fit with teaching English pronunciation. So two Australian teachers played Professor Higgins and Colonel Pickering while I put on a wig and a skirt over my blue jeans and was Eliza Doolittle. We acted our parts and when it came to the musical interlude in the song I did a sort of a flamenco dance. You could hear the screaming and howling of the students and other staff in the next county, and the principal was laughing so hard his tears were flowing. That evening I became one of the school's most favoured teachers.
Excellent
Teaching was the most satisfying and personally rewarding thing I ever did in my life, and I've done an awful lot of different things in my life.
I taught for a few years. It was good.
What did you teach, and where? The courses I taught were English, Business English and Australian Law (the private school was affiliated with the University of Western Australia). Because Australian law is almost the same as Canadian law (both based on British law) it was easy for me. I also gave private lessons to prepare for the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) which is a test, the scores for which are used by universities around the world for admission purposes.
One advantage I had was that teachers are highly respected by students and the general public in China. You would never see a "Blackboard Jungle" here. There is even an anciently traditional annual "Teachers' Day" when teachers are given gifts by the schools and students.
Message to JR: Your tolerance of our civil off-topic comments is admirable and helps make NT a better and happier place for members. I am the same on all my groups.
In France in the early/mid 1970s. English, or course. But the best was one year in a technical school (preparing skilled workers), teaching French... which I didn't yet speak all that well.
I asked the students to open themselves, to express something important to them. To prime the pump, I spoke of the death of my mother, ten years earlier. Several returned heartfelt texts. It was a fine moment.
Teaching was great, but school administration was not. I moved to industry for the next fifty years.
I'm glad that teaching was the last of my working life - it left me with the happiest of memories.
She is correct in that the majority of guns in Mexico come from the US and she is also correct that the US being the largest user of illegal drugs in the world should address this problem and tariffs are not going to do that.
The US has been a huge drug user long before fentanyl and will be long after other drugs have grown more popular.
If Kennedy has his way we’ll be using more mind bending drugs and less prescribed drugs and then of course we have the Big Pharma pushing every drug known to man and the Slacker family at the head of the pushers.
If you think that if we stop Fentynel at the border the cartels will find another way to get it in. Even now drugs are crossing all our borders and will continue as long as there is a demand for them here.
It’s not brain surgery.
Yeah, the loose gun laws in AZ. and TX.
I'm sorry, we're a little busy blaming other people for our problems. We don't have time for these facts.
Lol...
You’re right that is hilarious. Believing that she really said that or that he really had a call with her….LMAO
LMAO indeed.
The Great Pretender strikes again, I guess his threats didn’t scare her and that must have really pissed him off. A women no less, too funny.
Donald Trump's crowning achievement -
The lefts hate and intolerance was there long before trump.
Great projection, George.
I just love that picture and wonder what she is going to do with that finger... It does not look as if she is going to do anything nice with it.
She's going to poke him in the eye with it
Looks like the kind of finger that comes out when she combines eye of newt, hemlock, and husk of frog. If it’s pointed at you, you probably want to duck.
A Mexico vs U.S. trade conflict with product bans, high tariffs, import/export restrictions would benefit neither nation.
As to the U.S. economy and the Mexican economy - which needs the other more?
Interesting question
Who's gonna mow the lawn?
I mow my own lawn and take care of the flower beds and the shrubbery
It is a healthy and fun pastime.
You should try it
I think there should be an easy (or easier) process for temporary work visas for seasonal laborers and would never argue that the path to citizenship for immigrants needs some paving, but no one should be allowed to just walk in and stay ignoring all processes and laws.
The inter-country country economic relations between the U.S. and Mexico is so much more than migrant labor - I figured you knew that