‘We have given him everything’: Trump’s tariffs stun Mexico

MEXICO CITY — Up to the last minute, Isaac Presburger, like a lot of other Mexican businesspeople, still could not believe that President Donald Trump would deliver on his promise to hit Mexico with tariffs. Little did it matter that Trump had announced that very day that he would go ahead with the planned taxes.

“I am still incredulous,” said Presburger, director of sales at Preslow, a family-run apparel business in Mexico. “We know by now that Trump pressures you so you give him what he wants. We have given him everything and he has not let loose of his grip.”

In response to Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican products, Mexico made a major effort: Leaders agreed to send more than two dozen alleged cartel heads to be tried in the United States, a departure from the government’s previous stance on extraditions.

President Claudia Sheinbaum dispatched thousands of National Guard troops to the state of Sinaloa, the hub of fentanyl trafficking, where they seized vast amounts of the synthetic opioid and busted hundreds of laboratories. She sent thousands more to the U.S. border, contributing to a plunge in the number of illegal crossings.

Sheinbaum bent further than anyone had expected to show the Trump administration that her government was serious about meeting U.S. demands, analysts say.

And yet, despite it all, the tariffs struck after midnight Tuesday.

That has left people in Mexico’s government, business and civil society reeling, but also feeling exasperated, even betrayed.

“We are emphatic,” Sheinbaum said in a news conference Tuesday morning, hours after Trump’s tariffs took effect on its biggest trading partners, including Mexico and Canada. “There is no reason, justification or excuse that supports this decision that will affect our people and nations.”

She ticked off what she described as her government’s “significant actions” against organized crime, and noted a 50% drop in fentanyl seizures between October and January at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We have worked and delivered results on security matters,” she said.

The tariffs represent not just a rift in the fabric of two economies that have been deeply interwoven for decades, but a sudden departure from a relationship that had long been collaborative and from what many in Mexico expected would take place: a last-minute deal.

Through late last week, a delegation from Mexico had been frantically negotiating with officials in Washington, and leaders had been projecting confidence. Even the financial markets held steady in Mexico.

Mexico’s economy minister, Marcelo Ebrard, posted to social media Friday, “Mexico and the United States have a great future working together,” with three thumbs-up emojis. Business leaders across the country shared the same optimism until Monday.

José de Jesús Rodríguez, president of Mexico City’s Chamber of Commerce, said Trump’s decision surprised him, particularly in light of the American leader’s suggestion that he would not impose tariffs if Mexico produced results on migration and drug trafficking. The results it delivered included a barrage of high-level arrests and the handover of the 29 accused drug bosses that the U.S. government had long sought to get on its own soil.

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