MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s leader said Saturday that she rejected an offer by President Trump to send U.S. troops into her country to fight drug cartels.
Speaking at a public event, President Claudia Sheinbaum confirmed a report published Friday in the Wall Street Journal that said that Trump had pressured Mexico to allow more U.S. military involvement in the drug war.
“It’s true,” Sheinbaum said. She said that on some private calls with the American leader in recent months, Trump said: “How can we help you fight drug trafficking? I propose that the United States Army enter to help you.”
Sheinbaum said she rebuffed his proposal, saying: “No, President Trump, our territory is inalienable, sovereignty is inalienable. … We can collaborate, we can work together, but with you in your territory and us in ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the United States Army on our territory.”
This remains an extremely sensitive topic for Mexicans, given previous military occupations by the U.S. and the strong sense of nationalism that resulted
— Gustavo A. Flores-Macías, Cornell University professor
A statement released by the White House on Saturday said that Sheinbaum and Trump had worked closely “to achieve the most secure southwest border in history,” but it did not directly address her comments on U.S. forces in Mexico.
“The President has been crystal clear that Mexico must do more do combat these gangs and cartels and the United States stands ready to assist and expand the already close cooperation between our two countries,” the statement said.
Since Trump returned to the White House in January, his administration has ramped up CIA surveillance drone flights over Mexico, formally designated drug cartels as “foreign terrorist” groups and has repeatedly floated the possibility of deploying troops there to fight organized crime. He has massed U.S. troops on the northern side of the U.S. border with Mexico to crack down on unauthorized immigration and drug smuggling.
Mexico is “essentially run by the cartels,” Trump said earlier this year, insisting that the United States should “wage war” against them.
Sheinbaum has rejected Trump’s characterization that Mexico is under cartel domination, and has vowed to defend her nation’s sovereignty against violations “by land, sea or air.”
But the Mexican president’s latest comments confirm that Mexico remains under intense pressure from Washington to accept greater U.S. involvement in the anti-drug fight, noted Gustavo A. Flores-Macías, professor of government at Cornell University.
“This remains an extremely sensitive topic for Mexicans, given previous military occupations by the U.S. and the strong sense of nationalism that resulted,” Flores-Macías wrote via email.
That gives Sheinbaum “little room to maneuver” as Trump continues to insist on dispatching U.S. troops south of the border. “The Mexican government would be wise to take the threat of unilateral U.S. strikes against the cartels very seriously, while making it clear to the White House that the costs in terms of the economy, security and migration would be steep,” Flores-Macias wrote.
Unilateral U.S. strikes, experts say, could result in Mexico being obliged to take retaliatory measures, such as cutting back on bilateral cooperation on key issues such as security and immigration. U.S. attacks that result in civilian casualties could even force Mexico to cut diplomatic ties with its major trading partner.
No administration in modern times has taken such a militaristic approach to Mexico, a U.S. ally that Trump blames for producing the fentanyl that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Trump’s stance upends recent U.S. policy, which emphasized beefing up the rule of law in Mexico, and stands at odds with Mexico’s security strategy, which has veered away from the sort of fierce cartel confrontations that drove record levels of bloodshed.
Trump’s fixation on organized crime in Mexico has put Sheinbaum in a difficult position. She has tried to appease him to try to avert the potentially catastrophic tariffs that he has threatened unless Mexico cracks down on fentanyl trafficking. She sent thousands of National Guard troops to fortify the northern border and is transferring dozens of suspected cartel members to the U.S.
But she has also had to show fellow Mexicans that she is defending national sovereignty. Since Trump took office in January, nationalism has surged here.
On TikTok, users have demanded a boycott of American products, filming themselves pouring Coca Cola down the drain. Companies have embraced the red, green and white of the Mexican flag in ad campaigns.
A U.S. unilateral attack, some fear, could return Mexican politics to the gringo-bashing tendency that was once prevalent among Mexican politicians. But official dumping on the United States has generally diminished in recent years as economic, cultural and other U.S.-Mexico ties have strengthened and millions of Mexicans have emigrated to the United States.
Remittances to Mexico from people of Mexican ancestry in the United States now top more than $60 billion annually, comprising a key pillar of the Mexican economy.
Patrick J. McDonnell and Cecilia Sánchez Vidal in Mexico City and Michael Wilner in Washington contributed to this report.
