In her “Mañanera” morning press conference on Jan. 21, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to the various aspects of U.S.-Mexico policy coming from the new Trump administration, repeatedly drawing a distinction between his remarks and the actual text of the decrees. Sheinbaum stated that Mexico would above all defend its sovereignty while keeping a “cool head” in its responses to the United States.
On Trump’s declaring a border emergency and the return to the “Remain in Mexico” policy, Sheinbaum stated these policies were already in place during the first Trump presidency. Mexico will act in a humanitarian way to try to help Mexicans affected by these policies, she stated. On revising the USMCA free trade agreement, she said Trump’s decree scheduled this for 2026, which is part of the accord’s provisions anyway. On the “Gulf of America,” she said the U.S. decree referred to the continental shelf, and the U.S. was free to call it what they wanted, but that Mexico and the rest of the world would continue to refer to it as the Gulf of Mexico.
The key new element, she admitted, was classifying the drug cartels operating in Mexico as terrorists. “They [the U.S.] can act in their territory, according to their regulations and their Constitution,” she told her daily news conference. “What we insist on is the defense of our sovereignty and our independence.” Mexico will cooperate, but without subordination, she said