MEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0He has called Colombian President Gustavo Petro \u201ca sick man\u201d and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a \u201cdictator.\u201d He once slammed French President Emmanuel Macron as \u201cpublicity-seeking,\u201d and former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as \u201cdishonest and weak.\u201d <\/p>\n
President Trump is known for hurling scathing insults at world leaders. <\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. The U.S. president has described her, at turns, as \u201cfantastic,\u201d \u201cterrific\u201d and \u201celegant.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a social media post<\/a> Thursday, he offered his most glowing compliments yet, extolling Sheinbaum as \u201cwonderful and highly intelligent\u201d and saying Mexicans \u201cshould be very happy\u201d to have her as their leader. <\/p>\n Trump\u2019s emphatic praise for Sheinbaum is surprising, given their marked differences in temperament and politics.<\/p>\n Sheinbaum, a leftist known for her patience and pragmatism, labeled Israel\u2019s U.S.-backed war in Gaza a \u201cgenocide<\/a>\u201d and condemned the recent U.S. capture<\/a> of Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n She disagrees with Trump on three of his firmly held beliefs: that the U.S. should raise tariffs on Mexican imports, expel migrants en masse, and attack drug traffickers inside Mexico. <\/p>\n But Sheinbaum is keenly aware of how Trump\u2019s actions on trade, immigration and security could plunge Mexico into turmoil, potentially threatening her own popularity and the legacy of the ruling party founded by her populist predecessor, Andr\u00e9s Manuel L\u00f3pez Obrador. <\/p>\n So she has trodden strategically, requesting frequent phone calls with Trump, making concessions on issues such as security and heaping praise right back at him. She described her conversation with Trump on Thursday as \u201cproductive and cordial\u201d and added: \u201cI had the pleasure of greeting his wife, Melania.\u201d<\/p>\n So far, her tactics have worked. Trump\u2019s repeated threats of sweeping tariffs on Mexican goods and drone attacks on cartel targets have not yet come to pass. <\/p>\n Managing Trump has been one of the biggest \u2014 and perhaps most consequential \u2014 focal points of Sheinbaum\u2019s presidency. \u201cIt\u2019s not something that just happened today,\u201d she said recently of her relationship with Trump. \u201cCommunication, coordination, and defending the people of Mexico … are constants.\u201d<\/p>\n Sheinbaum has been quelling nerves in Mexico since Trump\u2019s election in late 2024, just weeks after she assumed the presidency. She promised to forge strong bonds with the incoming U.S. leader, who is widely disliked here for his diatribes against immigrants. Sheinbaum vowed to emulate Kalim\u00e1n, a beloved Mexican comic-book superhero known for defeating villains with \u201cserenity and patience.\u201d <\/p>\n She has sought to command Trump\u2019s respect in other ways, holding massive public rallies that demonstrate widespread support for her government. \u201cWe will always hold our heads high,\u201d she said at one event shortly before Trump took office. \u201cMexico is a free, independent and sovereign country. We coordinate, we collaborate, but we do not submit.\u201d<\/p>\n In some ways, Trump has actually galvanized support for Sheinbaum by sparking a surge in nationalism. Polls show most Mexicans approve of her handling of the bilateral relationship. According to a poll conducted by El Pa\u00eds newspaper, her approval rating soared to 83% in May after she persuaded Trump to postpone the implementation of heavy tariffs. It now stands around 74%.<\/p>\n Still, some political analysts point out that Trump may like Sheinbaum because, despite her talk of defending Mexico\u2019s sovereignty, she has actually acquiesced to him many times, particularly on issues of security. <\/p>\n \u201cThe list of concessions to Trump accumulated in a single year far surpasses in scope and depth those made by supposedly more \u2018subservient\u2019 governments,\u201d wrote columnist Jorge Lomonaco in El Universal newspaper.<\/p>\n Sheinbaum has deployed Mexican troops to stop migrants from reaching the U.S. border. She has sent dozens of accused drug criminals to the U.S. to face trial there, sidestepping the standard extradition process to do so. She imposed tariffs on some imports from China and other countries, and her government reportedly paused shipments of oil to Cuba, signaling a possible end to what Sheinbaum had lauded as a \u201chumanitarian\u201d effort to aid the embattled island nation \u2014 another possible target of Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cIn public, Sheinbaum\u2019s government has maintained a sovereign and patriotic rhetoric, but it is evident that, in private, it has been very docile with the U.S.,\u201d Lomonaco wrote.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s discourse with Mexico continues to be infused with threats. While he calls Sheinbaum a \u201cgood woman,\u201d he also said in May that she is \u201cso afraid of the cartels<\/a> she can\u2019t even think straight.\u201d<\/p>\n Many believe Trump\u2019s decision to send U.S. special forces to arrest Maduro and his wife in Caracas could embolden him to launch a U.S. military attack on cartels in Mexico \u2014 a move that Sheinbaum would clearly see as crossing a red line<\/a>, and could probably ignite a political crisis here.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think there\u2019s a real risk of a strike on Mexican soil against cartels, especially after what happened in Venezuela,\u201d said Gustavo Flores-Mac\u00edas, dean of the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland. <\/p>\n Mexico, he said, is attempting \u201ca delicate balance of keeping U.S. authorities happy without falling into this perennial game of trying to appease the White House and do everything that Trump wants.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump has also threatened to pull out of a trilateral trade deal with Canada, which was negotiated during his first term. The U.S., Mexico and Canada must launch a joint review of the free trade pact by July 1, its sixth anniversary, to determine whether the nations intend to renew it for 16 more years or make modifications. Trump has called the deal \u201cirrelevant,\u201d but the pact is fundamental to a Mexican economy heavily dependent on cross-border trade.<\/p>\n And on Thursday, Trump surprised Mexican officials by declaring he would impose sanctions on countries that sell oil to Cuba.<\/p>\n