Politics
As tariffs loom, this is what Mexico is doing to placate Trump
MEXICO CITY — Facing a Tuesday deadline, the government of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is once again mounting a full-court press to dissuade President Trump from implementing potentially devastating tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States.
This week, she delivered a symbolic gift: the transfer to the United States of 29 drug trafficking suspects, including Rafael Caro Quintero, the legendary co-founder of the once-dominant Guadalajara cartel and alleged mastermind of the 1985 slaying of Enrique Camarena, an undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Mexico.
Also flown to the United States in a dramatic illustration of binational security collaboration were alleged drug lords affiliated with some of the six Mexican organized crime groups that Trump’s White House branded “foreign terrorist organizations.”
Behind closed doors in Washington, several of Sheinbaum’s Cabinet ministers engaged in a different form of diplomacy, seeking to persuade their U.S. counterparts to stave off Trump’s plan for a 25% across-the-board tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada. Sheinbaum, meanwhile, said she was hoping to speak directly to the mercurial U.S. president.
“As you know, he has his way of communicating,” Sheinbaum said Thursday with a smile. “But, as we always say: It takes a cool head and optimism to reach an accord.”
Trump first threatened to impose tariffs on Feb. 4, but last-minute agreements delayed them a month. On Wednesday, Trump seemed to say that the tariffs would be deferred again — until April. But in a social media post Thursday, Trump again reversed course, saying they would go into effect on March 4.
Sheinbaum, who took office on Oct. 1, has been praised at home for handling Trump’s tariff threats with equanimity while not compromising Mexican sovereignty or alienating her nationalist base. A recent poll showed her with an 80% approval rating.
“Instead of responding to everything he says, she is trying to demonstrate what Mexico has been doing on the security and migration front and also how important Mexico is to U.S. competitiveness,” said Pamela K. Starr, a professor of international relations at USC.
“She’s trying to convince Trump that tariffs don’t make sense,” Starr added, “because the competitiveness of U.S. companies depends on Mexico, and the ability of the U.S. to bring more production home depends on its ability to work well with Mexico.”
The tariffs would likely trigger retaliatory duties from both nations and could send Mexico’s already shaky economy into a recession, experts say. The Bank of Mexico expects the country’s economy to grow by just 0.6% this year.
Trump’s wide-ranging tariff blueprint has triggered global uncertainty. But few countries stand to lose more than Mexico, which sends more than 80% of its exports to the United States.
Already, foreign direct investment in Mexico has plummeted as investors face the uncertainty of tariffs.
Ed Lebow, a trade attorney at the U.S.-based firm Haynes and Boone, said companies that do business with Mexico are deeply anxious.
Recently, representatives of a company that manufactures goods there asked Lebow whether they could avoid tariffs by routing their products to Guatemala before sending them to the U.S. market. Lebow had to tell the company no — tariffs depend on where products are assembled, not where they are shipped from.
“People are grasping at anything,” Lebow said of worried business executives. “With Trump, one never knows if this is more brinkmanship, which is a standard technique in negotiation, or whether it actually represents a sincere belief that if he does not get the response needed on fentanyl, it’s worth disrupting the entire North American economy.”
In early February, Makoto Uchida, chief executive of Nissan, sent shock waves through Mexico when he suggested the Japanese automaker may be forced to move production elsewhere if Trump follows through on his tariff plan.
In recent months, Sheinbaum has heavily promoted a crackdown on the country’s illicit drug trade, citing high numbers of arrests of suspected traffickers and seizures of fentanyl and other illegal substances.
Thursday’s transfer of 29 prisoners, was the latest in a series of turnovers of alleged traffickers in a nation where organized crime controls vast swaths of territory and dominates cross-border smuggling. According to the Justice Department, as many as six of the 29 fugitives, including Quintero, could now face the death penalty — which they would not have faced in Mexico.
As the tariff deadline nears, Mexican officials are hopeful for the kind of 11th-hour reprieve that in early February prompted Trump to put off the levies for a month. On that occasion, Sheinbaum spoke with Trump via telephone for 45 minutes and touted Mexico’s progress in deterring U.S.-bound migrants and drugs.
But on Thursday, in his post saying the tariffs would proceed, Trump cited the “very high and unacceptable” levels of drugs — especially fentanyl — “pouring into our country” from Mexico and Canada, and produced with precursor chemicals from China.
U.S. officials blame fentanyl, primarily smuggled from Mexico, for tens of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years.
Somewhat surprisingly, Trump’s Thursday post made no mention of illegal immigration — which, along with drug smuggling, Trump has long cited as his rationale for imposing sanctions on Mexico and Canada.
It was unclear if the omission reflected While House recognition of steep declines in illegal immigration along the Southwest border, where U.S. Border Patrol arrests have plummeted to their lowest numbers in years. The reductions, officials say, are largely the result of U.S. crackdowns spanning both the Trump and Biden administrations and enhanced Mexican efforts to detain and push back U.S.-bound migrants.
The good news for Mexico is that the peso, despite fluctuations amid Trump’s shifting rhetoric, has remained relatively stable — a fact that Starr said suggests “financial markets don’t believe Trump” will really impose tariffs.
Everything Trump says has to be taken at face value. The Mexican government cannot afford to do otherwise.
— Gustavo Flores-Macías, professor of government at Cornell University
Providing a chilling backdrop to the current tariff debate in Mexico are memories of past major peso devaluations — especially the peso crisis of 1994-95, which ignited the same year that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, opening up the era of largely duty-free trade among Mexico, the United States and Canada. The economic crisis spurred a massive wave of migration to the U.S.
While Trump has a history of issuing sweeping threats only to pull back at the last minute, many experts say they must be taken seriously.
“Everything Trump says has to be taken at face value,” said Gustavo Flores-Macías, a professor of government at Cornell University. “The Mexican government cannot afford to do otherwise.”
Among Mexican officials, the hope is that cross-border industries likely to be affected by tariffs — notably the automotive sector — will exert sufficient pressure on Trump’s advisors to cancel the tariffs by arguing that new taxes will raise prices for U.S. consumers and slow the U.S. economy.
A likely scenario is that Trump could again “kick the can down the road,” said Idelfonso Guajardo, who, as a former Mexican economics minister, helped negotiate the current North American trade agreement with the first Trump administration.
“I’ve always said that Donald Trump is the most disruptive individual I have known — but also the most predictable,” Guajardo said.
Times special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
new video loaded: Jan. 6 Rioter Hired by Pentagon
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Jan. 6 Rioter Hired by Pentagon
Elias Irizarry, who pleaded guilty to climbing through a broken window at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, now works for an office responsible for uncovering and defending against terrorism plots at the Pentagon.
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“Full pardon or commutation?” “Full pardon.”
By Alisa Shodiyev Kaff
June 4, 2026
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Democrats splintered over a resolution seeking to block the U.S. from assisting Israel’s war against Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, on Thursday.
The measure, offered by progressive Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., would require President Donald Trump to withdraw U.S. forces from Lebanon. For months, Israel and Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist group and Iranian proxy, have been at war in southern Lebanon, but the United States has not joined the conflict.
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., rejected the measure. Critics argued the resolution could aid Hezbollah and potentially hamstring U.S. military operations in the country.
Tlaib’s resolution failed 92-324, with more than half of House Democrats joining nearly all Republicans to vote it down.
The Lebanon war powers resolution divided Democrats, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., joining Republicans in rejecting the measure. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)
REP RASHIDA TLAIB MOVES TO BLOCK US OPERATIONS IN LEBANON BUT IGNORES HEZBOLLAH
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., an Israel critic, was the lone Republican to support Tlaib’s measure. Meanwhile, Reps. Derek Tran, D-Calif., and Betty McCollum, D-Minn., voted present.
House Democratic leaders said shortly before the vote they would oppose Tlaib’s resolution and work with the progressive lawmaker on a narrower measure exempting some U.S. military operations in the country. Their statement also denounced Hezbollah as a “violent terrorist organization” and a “sworn enemy of the United States.”
Tlaib, who has accused Israel of committing “ethnic cleansing” in Lebanon, did not mention Hezbollah in her resolution. She and other proponents of the measure also avoided discussing the Iranian proxy force during heated floor debate over the measure.
Republicans highlighted the omission and accused the legislation’s supporters of serving as “proxies for Hezbollah.”
“Apparently they don’t want to see Israel killing Hezbollah, even though it’s Hezbollah that is killing Israeli children, Israeli adults, Israeli elders,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., said Wednesday, referring to his Democratic colleagues.
Tlaib asserted that her resolution would only affect U.S. forces actively engaged in hostilities. Republicans, however, disputed that claim and suggested it would hurt U.S. efforts to counter Hezbollah.
“It doesn’t say anything about [whether] you can keep the Marines that are in the embassy,” Mast said, referring to the U.S. embassy in Beirut. “That’s a pretty big oversight. It doesn’t say anything about whether we can keep United States armed forces that are training missions with the LAF [Lebanese Armed Forces]. Again, pretty big oversight.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, attempted to bar U.S. forces from joining Israel’s war in Lebanon. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg)
RASHIDA TLAIB HIT WITH HOUSE CENSURE THREAT, ACCUSED OF ‘CELEBRATING TERRORISM’ IN PRO-PALESTINIAN SPEECH
The debate turned personal when Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, linked Tlaib to Hezbollah.
“Hezbollah is a terrorist organization … and its members are butchers that you like to hang out with to a certain extent,” the Ohio lawmaker said, referring to Tlaib.
A shouting match between the two then broke out, with Tlaib demanding that Miller’s remarks be stricken from the record.
The presiding chair ultimately complied with her request, but Miller doubled down on his remarks.
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“Yes, I said it. I own it, and I stand by it,” Mast said on behalf of Miller on the floor.
Tlaib’s failed war powers resolution comes as Iran has sought to tie Israel’s invasion of Lebanon to its ceasefire negotiations with the United States.
Hezbollah, which has long helped Iran project power in the region, rejected a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon’s government Thursday.
WASHINGTON — Initial efforts in the Senate failed Thursday to block the $1.8-billion fund that the Trump administration has sought to establish to pay people who claim the government wronged them, though further attempts were likely to come Thursday afternoon.
Republicans narrowly voted down a Democratic amendment to ban the payout fund and then Democrats killed a Republican amendment, which would have prohibited the use of federal money for the fund but would have sent $1.7 billion to the Justice Department’s fraud division.
It was the second effort in Congress to rebuke President Trump in two days, following the House vote Wednesday to rein in Trump’s war powers in Iran.
The dueling amendments were proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.). They were attached to the reconciliation bill that would fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol, a high priority for Republicans.
The votes came as the Senate began a “vote-a-rama,” during which lawmakers were expected to propose a stream of amendments to the immigration bill on various topics.
The Trump administration’s plan for the payment fund — widely seen as a way for Trump to compensate his political allies, including those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — set off particular ire from some GOP lawmakers.
The plan has fueled growing unrest within parts of Trump’s party over his governance, compounded by the president’s endorsement of primary challengers to Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), as well as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), which angered some Republican senators.
Cassidy, who lost his primary and has since voiced strong opposition to Trump’s $1.8-billion fund, became a key player in the Thursday votes, voting down Schumer’s amendment but supporting Tillis’.
On Wednesday, Cassidy joined with Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to argue in a court filing that the $1.8-billion fund circumvents Congress’ authority and violates the Constitution’s spending and appropriations clauses.
“It is an unconstitutional attempt to spend the People’s money without Congressional approval,” Cassidy and Booker wrote in an amicus brief filed in the federal court case challenging the fund.
The fund was created by the Justice Department to settle a lawsuit brought by Trump against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Trump and his sons agreed to drop their personal lawsuit against the government in exchange for the creation of the $1.776-billion fund. Critics immediately questioned the plan, and it drew a rare backlash from Republicans.
In late May, GOP senators derailed plans to vote on the immigration bill over their displeasure with the payout fund and with Trump’s desire to use taxpayer funds for his planned White House ballroom. Senate Republicans removed the ballroom funding from the immigration package Wednesday, another setback for Trump.
The Trump administration sought to back away from its plans for the fund this week, following bipartisan outcry and a federal court ruling that temporarily blocked any payouts from the fund. Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said Tuesday the administration would end its plans to move ahead with the concept.
But Trump on Wednesday told reporters he didn’t know whether the fund was dead, calling it “a beautiful thing.”
After Schumer proposed the first amendment to ban the fund Thursday morning, the Senate came to a standstill as three key Republican senators deliberated. Schumer framed his effort to ban the fund Thursday as a way to force a referendum on Trump’s plan.
The amendment “offers Republicans a choice: Do you support Donald Trump’s $2 billion taxpayer-funded slush fund, or do you want to protect the American people and their paychecks?” Schumer said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) urged Republicans to reject the amendment, saying Democrats were planning to “play so many games” on Thursday during the marathon session.
“We are going to fund immigration enforcement and border patrol, and I urge my Republican colleagues to stay united on that singular mission,” Moreno said.
The amendment failed after Cassidy voted against it. Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska voted in favor.
Schumer’s amendment was uniformly supported by Democrats, including California Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla.
Tillis, who also voted against Schumer’s amendment, immediately proposed his amendment. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) urged Democrats to oppose it, saying that the proposal would create “a new slush fund” by giving the money to the Justice Department.
“We heard over the last 48 hours that the acting attorney general said that this fund’s not moving forward. All this amendment does is codify what I believe the policy of the DOJ is,” Tillis said on the floor before voting began on his amendment. “This [fund] is unpopular, this administration has said they’re not moving forward with it; this is an opportunity for us to put it to bed.”
Responded Merkley: “Taking one slush fund and eliminating it and then creating a new slush fund still under control of the attorney general is not the way to go. The way to go is to get rid of these slush funds altogether.”
Trump has faced a recent string of failures, including the House vote Wednesday, a court ruling to remove his name from the Kennedy Center and a record-low approval rating among Americans as concern rises about economic issues, gas prices and Trump’s war with Iran.
On Wednesday, Trump lashed out against the four Republicans who backed the House war powers resolution, calling it “an unpatriotic thing” to do and calling the vote “meaningless.”
“They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!! President DJT,” Trump wrote.
Times staff writer Ana Ceballos, in Washington, contributed to this report.
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