Claudia Sheinbaum has achieved what no experienced head of state or world leader has achieved: public praise from US President Donald Trump. The Mexican president has also managed to reach an understanding with the Republican, with whom she has held nine telephone conversations during this six-year term.
Trump—chief executive of the most powerful country in the world due to its economic dominance, as well as its military and technological capabilities—has described Sheinbaum as a wonderful, fantastic, and even tough woman. He has also shown his respect on more than one occasion for Mexico’s first female president.
An interaction that surprises the world
Claudia Sheinbaum’s successful negotiations with Donald Trump have earned her headlines in US media outlets, such as the Financial Times. Also in Europe, Sheinbaum’s composure with Trump has been surprising, as they have never seen a head of state who has remained equable in the face of the Republican’s attitudes.
Furthermore, the Mexican president was selected by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2025, whose annual list was published on April 16.
And Sheinbaum has revealed her secret every time she’s asked about the American’s strident statements: “Trump has a way of speaking, but as I said, the only one who rules in Mexico is the people,” she has said time and again, without getting involved, without escalating the confrontation, keeping a cool head, focused on what’s important.
And a misstep in that strategy would be devastating not only for her administration, but for Mexico’s economy as well.
This is how the Mexican leader has acted against Trump
This September 1st, Claudia Sheinbaum completes 11 months in office, and containing the United States’ tariff policy is one of the main achievements of the first part of her administration, thanks to her “cool head” strategy.
The Mexican president has managed to avoid the tariffs announced by Washington on three occasions—on February 3, March 6, and July 31—after negotiating directly with Trump, the antagonist of several nations who has aggressively confronted the leaders of major powers.
On that last date (July 31), they agreed to suspend the implementation of the 30 percent tariffs on Mexican products—except automobiles, steel, and aluminum—after a 40-minute phone call. They agreed to a 90-day period to work on a long-term agreement between the two nations.
After the ninth conversation between the two leaders, the Republican emphasized the understanding with Sheinbaum.
“I just concluded a telephone conversation with the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, which was very successful in the sense that we are getting to know and understand each other more and more. The complexities of an agreement with Mexico are somewhat different from those of other nations due to both the problems and assets on the border,” the US president explained on his Truth Social account.
The Tariff Dialogue
Earlier, on March 6, the Morena candidate and Trump agreed—in their fourth telephone conversation—that all products exported from Mexico to the United States through the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) would be exempt from tariffs.
On that occasion, the US president asserted that he made the agreement out of respect for Claudia Sheinbaum, whom he thanked for her hard work and cooperation.
“After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum, I agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA agreement. This agreement runs through April 2,” Trump explained on social media.
“I made this as a concession and out of respect for President Sheinbaum. Our relationship has been very good, and we are working hard together at the border, both in terms of preventing illegal aliens from entering the United States and, equally, stopping fentanyl. Thank you to President Sheinbaum for her hard work and cooperation!” he said.
In response to the statement, Claudia Sheinbaum emphasized at the La Mañanera press conference:
The US president has also heaped praise on the Mexican leader in press conferences. On March 6, from the Oval Office, he referred to Sheinbaum as a wonderful woman.
“Today I spoke with the president of Mexico, a wonderful woman. We helped them with a short-term issue related to tariffs. We had a good conversation. We also discussed drugs, and they’ve been working much harder lately, have you noticed? On immigrants, on drugs, and we’ve made tremendous progress on both,” he told the media.
On April 10, the Republican described Sheinbaum as “a fantastic and very good woman” in a meeting with his cabinet, after announcing that three Mexican auto factories would be moving to the United States.
On February 19, Trump praised Sheinbaum and announced a campaign against fentanyl use, similar to the one launched by the Mexican leader, stemming from their third phone call.
“That was a great conversation, because we’re going to spend hundreds of millions of dollars talking about how bad drugs are. I make a lot of calls and I never learn anything from anyone. I know everything and I never learn anything from anyone. I spoke to this woman, and as soon as she said it, I said, ‘What a great idea,’” the Republican explained.
Meanwhile, The New York Times reported that in the February 3 call—the third between the two leaders—the US president told his Mexican counterpart “you’re tough” while they were negotiating tariffs, according to four people with knowledge of the conversation.
But it hasn’t all been positive. While the Republican hasn’t referred to the president negatively, he has done so regarding the Mexican government. The most recent example is on August 14, when Trump asserted that Mexico and Canada do what his administration tells them to do when it comes to border security.
“Mexico does what we tell it to do, and so does Canada,” she stated in the Oval Office of the White House.
Furthermore, the Trump administration designated six Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) in February—the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the Northeast Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the United Cartels, and the new Michoacan Family Cartel—a unilateral decision with which Sheinbaum disagreed.
Source: milenio
