By MEGAN JANETSKY
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum responded sarcastically on Wednesday to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to vary the identify of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Standing earlier than a worldwide map in her each day press briefing, Sheinbaum proposed dryly that North America needs to be renamed “América Mexicana,” or “Mexican America,” as a result of a founding doc courting from 1814 that preceded Mexico’s structure referred to it that approach.
“That sounds nice, no?” she added with a sarcastic tone. She additionally famous that the Gulf of Mexico had been named that approach since 1607.
The change has began to reply a bigger query lingering over the bilateral relationship between the 2 regional powers: How would newly elected Sheinbaum deal with Trump’s strong-handed diplomatic strategy, and guarantees of mass-deportations and crippling taxes on buying and selling companions like Mexico?
Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political mentor Andrés Manuel López Obrador – who hailed from the same pressure of sophistication populism as Trump, though he leaned left – was capable of construct a relationship with Trump as an ally, and his authorities started to dam migrants from going north below U.S. stress, a boon to Trump.
But it surely was unclear if Mexico’s first lady president, a scientist and leftist missing the folksy populism that rocketed López Obrador into energy, would be capable to construct the identical relationship.
Whereas Wednesday’s joke shortly ricocheted throughout social media feeds, it additionally set the tone for what a Sheinbaum-Trump relationship may appear to be within the coming years.
“Humor can be a good tactic, it projects strength, which is what Trump responds to. It was probably the right choice on this issue,” stated Brian Winter, vice chairman of the New York-based Council of the Americas. “Although President Sheinbaum knows it won’t work on everything — Trump and his administration will demand serious engagement from Mexico on the big issues of immigration, drugs and trade.”
It comes after different stern however collaborative responses by Sheinbaum concerning Trump’s proposals.
On Trump’s pitch to slap 25% tariffs on Mexican imports, Sheinbaum warned that if the brand new U.S. administration imposes tariffs on Mexico, her administration would reply with comparable measures. She stated any form of tax was “not acceptable and would cause inflation and job losses for the United States and Mexico.”
She’s taken a extra concessionary tone on immigration, falling in keeping with years of Mexican efforts to dam migrants from touring north amid mounting stress by the U.S.
After initially saying her authorities would push the Trump administration to deport migrants straight again to their very own nations, in January she stated Mexico can be open to accepting deportees from different nations, however Mexico may restrict it to sure nationalities or request compensation.
Initially Printed: January 8, 2025 at 10:06 AM PST
