WASHINGTON — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that she and President Trump had a “cordial” hour-long meeting in Washington that ended with both leaders extending invitations to visit each other's countries.
“We’ll arrange a date later,” Sheinbaum told reporters outside the Mexican Cultural Institute.
The meeting was the first time the two had met face-to-face and followed months of clashes between the United States and Mexico over contentious issues such as trade, immigration and the fight against drug trafficking.
But on Friday, football brought the two world leaders together.
Sheinbaum was in Washington to attend World Cup The 2026 draw at the Kennedy Center with Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. The United States, Mexico and Canada are co-hosting the soccer tournament starting in June.
In a social media post, Sheinbaum said the three leaders spoke about “the great opportunity that the 2026 World Cup presents for the three countries and the good relationship we have.”
“We agreed to continue to work together on the trade issue with our teams,” she added.
She later repeated to reporters that the meeting was “very positive” and that it impressed upon Trump that Mexico was an “extraordinary” country. She said she personally invited him to visit Mexico and he invited him to return to Washington.
When asked if Trump asked her anything, she replied that he had “nothing special.”
After months of friction between the two countries, Friday's meeting could break the ice and pave the way for political talks as both presidents overcome pressure from their constituents.
Since the start of his second term in January, Trump has threatened to impose large trade tariffs on Mexico, the United States' largest trading partner, but so far Sheinbaum has managed to do so. avoid many tariffs.
Trump and his team also discussed the prospect of US strikes against suspected criminals and drug labs in Mexico. But Sheinbaum insists she will not allow the US military to fight drug cartels within her country's borders.
The ongoing negotiations come amid changing attitudes among Mexicans toward Trump and the United States. continued to sour. In contrast, Mexicans continue to have a positive view of their government's management of the border. according to a Pew Research Center report published in July.
The optimistic fallout from Friday's meeting belied deep differences of opinion between the leaders of the two countries, which share a nearly 2,000-mile border and deep economic, security and cultural ties.
The two North American presidents could hardly be more different: Sheinbaum is a scholar and lifelong leftist activist who maintains a low-key demeanor; Trump is a real estate heir who embraces right-wing talking points and craves the spotlight.
Sheinbaum had to walk a fine line as she fought off Trump's repeated threats to impose punitive tariffs on imports from Mexico, a country that relies heavily on cross-border trade with the United States.
She also rejected Trump's suggestions that US forces could interfere unilaterally in Mexico to attack drug cartels. She maintained her mantra of “cooperation, not subservience,” even as Trump mused about attacks on gangs in Mexico.
In various remarks, Trump praised Sheinbaum as “wonderful” and “brave” and said she rejected U.S. military aid to fight the Mexican cartels because she was “scared to death” of the cartels.
Sheinbaum criticized U.S. strikes on suspected drug ships in the Caribbean and Pacific that have killed dozens of people. She also stated Mexico's opposition to US military intervention in Venezuela or anywhere else in Latin America.
Mexico's president has repeatedly insisted that her country will be “nobody's piñata.”
During his career, Trump has long used Mexico and Mexicans as a political punching bag, catering to anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. Trump launched his 2016 presidential campaign by declaring that Mexican immigrants were criminals, drug dealers and “rapists” (though he acknowledged there were some “good people” among them), and repeatedly promised to build a “big beautiful wall” along the US-Mexico border that Mexico would pay for. This is wrong.
After Friday's meeting, Ronald Johnson, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said at X that the meeting “reaffirmed a historic partnership based on results,” adding, “Their dialogue advances a high-level agenda focused on cooperation, security and prosperity.”
Staff writers Ceballos reported from Washington and McDonnell from Mexico City.
