I regret former President Trump’s foul language and I certainly disagree with his opinion on @m_ebrard For me, he is one of the best public servants in Mexico and he will be a great secretary of economy for our country, which no one should forget is free and sovereign. https://t.co/o5cKRryh9V
— Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein)
July 21, 2024
Donald Trump held his first campaign rally on Saturday since he fought an assassination attempt a week ago. In front of his supporters in Michigan, the presidential candidate mocked the Democrats’ crisis and also claimed that Marcelo Ebrard gave in to his pressure when he was foreign minister.
Fresh from the convention that nominated him and solidified his takeover of the Republican Party, Trump appeared in Grand Rapids with his new vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. Both have been upping their game against Mexico in recent days.
Trump said that during his term in office, he demanded that Mexico – then represented by Marcelo Ebrard – deploy 28,000 soldiers on the southern border to stop migratory flows. According to the former US president, the then foreign minister accepted the conditions in the face of the threat of imposing tariffs.
“The gentleman representing the president said, ‘I’d like to discuss this with the president.’ And I said, ‘You have five minutes because I have to go. I have something much more important to do,'” Trump said.
“They gave us everything I wanted, I got everything from Mexico,” he added.
Marcelo Ebrard thanked Claudia Sheinbaum for her support.
“When you are insulted during your campaign, as former President Trump just did, there is always an electoral purpose: to gain supporters. I will never accept a candidate’s qualification abroad. It does not intimidate me. I will defend the interests of Mexico with all dignity and firmness,” Ebrard expressed on his social networks.
When you are insulted during your campaign, as former President Trump has just done, there is always an electoral purpose: to win supporters. I will never accept a candidate’s qualification abroad. It does not intimidate me. I will defend the interests of Mexico with all dignity and firmness.
— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard)
July 21, 2024
Hours earlier, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, President of Mexico, heaped praise on Donald Trump, the candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
“He is a strong man, with character, but also a visionary, and at first he said he did not want the treaty, that he wanted to close the United States economy and he became convinced because he is, as I have already said, a man with vision,” said López Obrador during the presentation of the Economic Balance on Industrial Development and T-MEC.
In the same speech, López Obrador celebrated that Ebrard was chosen to lead the Ministry of Economy during Sheinbaum’s six-year term.
Trump has spoken respectfully towards López Obrador on multiple occasions, but he has been talking for years about this negotiation in which, according to him, the Mexican government “bent over.”
This week, López Obrador said that he is friends with the former president. He also said that he would send him a letter to talk to him about migration.
