by the El Reportero‘s wire services
An “undoubtable triumph” for President Claudia Sheinbaum. The Mexican president is a “very intelligent” politician. Sheinbaum “played it well.”
Praise for Mexico’s first female president rolled in on Monday after she announced that she had reached a deal with United States President Donald Trump that included a one-month postponement of the 25 percent tariff the U.S. government planned to impose on all Mexican exports starting Tuesday.
At least temporarily, the deal averted a crisis for the Mexican economy, which is heavily dependent on income derived from exports sent to the United States.
As part of the agreement, Sheinbaum agreed to bolster security at the northern border with the deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops “to avoid the trafficking of drugs from Mexico to the United States, in particular fentanyl.”
On his program for the media outlet Latinus, high-profile Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola declared that “the president of Mexico bet and she won.”
“… She got another month, she won time, she won oxygen,” he said.
“… So the countdown begins again. It’s an undoubtable triumph for President Sheinbaum. It’s not easy to face up to the president of the United States, especially when we know he’s a man who knows no limits,” Loret de Mola said.
“The war wasn’t won, but a time bomb was defused, or better said minutes were added to the time bomb’s clock. It didn’t explode,” he said.
Sheinbaum’s management of the looming tariff crisis and the outcome she achieved impressed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“I believe that the president of Mexico is a very intelligent politician,” he told reporters in Brussels on Monday.
“She played it cool,” Scholz said.
On the X social media platform, former Mexican ambassador to China Jorge Guajardo heaped praise on Sheinbaum’s management of the situation.
“President Sheinbaum played it well. Masterfully,” he wrote.
Guajardo, who also represented Mexico as consul general in Austin, Texas, said that Sheinbaum provided an example to other world leaders on how to deal with a tariff threat from Trump.
While the president said that her administration would respond to Trump’s tariff on Mexican exports with “tariff and non-tariff measures” of its own, she kept the details of the plan under wraps, in contrast to the Canadian government.
Lila Abed, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington, said that Sheinbaum “has taken a very cautious and strategic approach to the Trump administration.”
Similarly, political scientist Denise Dresser said Monday that the president “kept a very measured tone” after Trump announced his proposed tariffs. Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, Sheinbaum has said she will maintain a “cool head” when dealing with the U.S. government.
Abed, who was quoted in a Reuters report, noted that Sheinbaum has been “taking actions within her government to send a clear signal to the United States that it understands that fentanyl and organized crime are a top priority for the Trump administration.”
