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Their long-delayed first face-to-face discussion focused on next year\u2019s World Cup \u2014 and included side discussions about trade and tariffs \u2014 but\u00a0immigration\u00a0was not the top issue. That\u2019s despite Trump\u2019s push to crack down on the U.S.-Mexico border being a centerpiece of his administration, and the driving force in the relations between both countries.<\/p>\n
Trump has been in office for more than 10 months, and his having taken so long to see Sheinbaum in-person is striking given that meeting with the leader of the country\u2019s southern neighbor is often a top priority for U.S. presidents.<\/p>\n
Trump and Sheinbaum had been set to meet in June on the sidelines of the\u00a0Group of Seven summit\u00a0in Canada, but that was scrapped after Trump rushed back to Washington early amid rising\u00a0tensions between Israel and Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump and Sheinbaum sat talking in the president\u2019s box and also appeared onstage with\u00a0Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney\u00a0at the\u00a0Kennedy Center\u00a0for Friday\u2019s\u00a02026 World Cup\u00a0draw. The U.S., Mexico and Canada are co-hosting the tournament, which begins in June.<\/p>\n
A senior White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private meetings, said Trump, Sheinbaum and Carney met privately after participating in the draw.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum had said before leaving Mexico that she\u2019d talk to Trump about tariffs that his administration has imposed on automobiles, steel and aluminum from Mexico, among other things. She said after appearing at the Kennedy Center that the three leaders \u201ctalked about the great opportunity that the 2026 FIFA World Cup represents for the three countries and about the good relationship we have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe agreed to continue working together on trade issues with our teams,\u201d Sheinbaum posted on X.<\/p>\n
Mexico is the United States\u2019 largest trading partner. The the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement which Trump forged in his first term as a replacement for 1994\u2019s North American Free Trade Agreement also remains in place. But U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has begun scrutinizing it ahead of a joint review process set for July.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the U.S. and Mexico\u2019s priorities have been reshaped by the\u00a0steep drop in the number\u00a0of people crossing into the U.S. illegally along its southern border, as well as the White House\u2019s \u2014 so far largely unrealized \u2014 threats to impose\u00a0large trade tariffs\u00a0on its neighbor.<\/p>\n
Before speaking in-person, Trump and Sheinbaum had repeatedly talked by phone, discussing tariffs and Mexican efforts to help combat the trafficking of fentanyl into the U.S. But despite other world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, having already met with Trump this term, the meeting with Sheinbaum hadn\u2019t happened until Friday.<\/p>\n
Waiting so long to meet in person hasn\u2019t seemed to hurt Mexico\u2019s president\u2019s standing with Trump.<\/p>\n
The two spoke by phone in November 2024, with the then-U.S. president-elect declaring afterward that they\u2019d agreed \u201cto stop Migration through Mexico\u201d \u2014 even as Sheinbaum suggested her country had already been doing enough.<\/p>\n
Trump soon after taking office threatened to impose a 25% tariff on goods imported from Mexico in an effort to force that country to better combat fentanyl smuggling, only to later\u00a0agree to a pause.<\/p>\n
The White House subsequently\u00a0backed off\u00a0tariff threats against most Mexican goods. Then, in October, Sheinbaum announced that the U.S. had given her country another extension to avoid sweeping 25% tariffs on goods it imports to the U.S. \u2014 even as many items covered by the USMCA trade deal remain exempt.<\/p>\n
Mexico, though, hasn\u2019t avoided all U.S. tariffs. Sheinbaum\u2019s country continues to\u00a0try to negotiate its way out of\u00a0import levies Trump has imposed worth 25% on the automotive sector and 50% on steel and aluminum.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum\u2019s success at mitigating many tariffs, and other successes in the bilateral relationship, has led some to wonder if she has a special gift for getting what she wants from him.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s largely pulled it off by affording Trump the respect the U.S. president demands from leaders around the world \u2014 but especially a neighboring country \u2014 and by deploying occasional humor and pushing back, always respectfully, when necessary.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum also defused another potential point of contention, Trump\u2019s\u00a0renaming of the Gulf of Mexico\u00a0to the \u201cGulf of America,\u201d by proposing dryly that North America should be renamed \u201cAm\u00e9rica Mexicana,\u201d or \u201cMexican America.\u201d That\u2019s because a founding document dating from 1814 that preceded Mexico\u2019s constitution referred to it that way.<\/p>\n
Still, Mexican officials continue to work furiously to lessen the trade blow from tariffs going into 2026 \u2014 levies that could wreck its already low-growth economy, particularly in its all-important automotive sector. Sheinbaum\u2019s government has also sought to defend its citizens living in the U.S. as the Trump administration expands its\u00a0mass deportation operations.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum\u2019s government also lobbied unsuccessfully against a 1% U.S. tax on remittances, or money transfers that millions of Mexicans send home every year from the United States. It was approved as part of\u00a0Trump\u2019s tax cut and spending package\u00a0and takes effect Jan. 1.<\/p>\n
Trump has\u00a0directed\u00a0federal officials to prioritize major deportation pushes in Democratic-run cities \u2014 an extraordinary move that lays bare the politics of the issues. He\u2019s also\u00a0deployed the National Guard\u00a0in an effort to curb crime, which has led to a spike in immigration-related arrests, in places like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, as well as Memphis, Tennessee, and Portland, Oregon.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration says its priority is targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d criminals, but most of the people detained in operations around the country have not had violent criminal histories.<\/p>\n
Such operations often meant targeting Mexican citizens who have lived and worked in the United States for years and may face deportation to a homeland they no longer know well. It also has meant\u00a0serious threats of declining remittance income, which has fallen for seven consecutive months.<\/p>\n
The lower number of illegal U.S.-Mexico border crossings has knocked immigration off its perch as the top agenda item for the U.S.-Mexico bilateral relations for the first time in recent memory.<\/p>\n
Mexican officials now say conversations around immigration have shifted toward cajoling countries into taking back their citizens and reintegrating them to keep them from leaving again \u2014 a\u00a0major Trump administration priority\u00a0around the world.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum has blunted some of the Trump administration\u2019s tough talk on fentanyl and drug smuggling cartels by giving her security chief Omar Garc\u00eda Harfuch more authority.<\/p>\n
Mexico has also extradited dozens of drug cartel figures to the U.S., including Rafael Caro Quintero, long sought in the 1985 killing of a DEA agent. That show of goodwill, and a much more visible effort against the cartels\u2019 fentanyl production, has gotten the Trump administration\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a significant improvement. Only a few years ago, the DEA struggled to get visas for its people in Mexico, and then-President Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador accused the U.S. government of fabricating evidence against a former Mexican defense secretary, though he never presented evidence to back up the allegation.<\/p>\n
Not everything has gone so smoothly, though. Trump criticized Sheinbaum for rejecting his proposal to send U.S. troops to Mexico to help thwart the illegal drug trade.<\/p>\n
Last month, Sheinbaum said there was no way the U.S. military would be able to make\u00a0strikes in Mexico, after Trump said he was open to the idea. And she has denounced U.S. strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can\u2019t even think straight,\u201d Trump said earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Sheinbaum declined to take the bait \u2014 and avoided turning up the political pressure \u2014 by sidestepping Trump\u2019s criticism.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Associated Press writer Chris Sherman contributed from Mexico City.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Trump #finally #meets #Claudia #Sheinbaum #face #face #FIFA #World #Cup #draw<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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