Trump touts Mexico's 'effectively closing' the border after call with Sheinbaum. She disagrees
President-elect Donald Trump is touting a win against illegal immigration following measures he discussed with Mexico’s president that he says would result in “effectively closing our Southern Border.”
But Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum's upshot was different.
"Mexico's stance is not to close borders, but to build bridges between governments and their peoples," Sheinbaum wrote on X, formerly Twitter, after their conversation.
Sheinbaum and Trump spoke on Wednesday, a day after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on its biggest trading partner.
Both leaders said they discussed immigration and illegal drugs. Trump said in a Truth Social post that Sheinbaum “has agreed to stop Migration through Mexico, and into the United States.”
Sheinbaum said Thursday that she discussed measures that "attended to" migrants to stop them from reaching the border.
More: Donald Trump threatens 25% tariff on products from Canada and Mexico. What are tariffs?
Trump has threatened Mexico with a 25% tariff that would be applied to goods shipped to the United States. Sheinbaum said Thursday that they did not discuss the proposed tariff during their call.
"It was a good conversation and we are going to keep having conversations," Sheinbaum said.
Trump described the call between the two leaders as “wonderful” and “very productive.”
Mexico and the U.S. are each other’s largest trading partners. A trade war between the two nations could have major economic repercussions.
“The response to one tariff will be another, until we put at risk companies that we share – yes, that we share," Sheinbaum said this week in warning about the economic risk for both countries from tariffs.
Trump campaigned on closing the southern border to migrants and stopping the flow of drugs, particularly fentanyl. According to the Centers for Disease Control, synthetic opioids – primarily fentanyl – caused 74,702 overdoes deaths in the U.S. last year.
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump, Mexican president talk border security as tariff threat looms