Sheinbaum accuses U.S. far-right of fueling Mexico tensions

Claudia Sheinbaum raised the temperature in one of Mexico’s most consequential relationships on Monday, accusing sectors of the far right in the United States of working with domestic groups in Mexico to undermine her government. She said the attacks were tied to ideological opposition to her administration and insisted she did not believe President Donald Trump was personally directing them.

The warning landed in Mexico City against a backdrop of already strained ties with Washington. Since Trump returned to office in January 2025, the two governments have been locked in recurring tension over tariffs and immigration policy, and the latest dispute has now been pulled deeper into questions of sovereignty, security, and political control.

Sheinbaum had already sharpened that message a day earlier at the Monumento a la Revolución, where she marked her second year in office before a crowd of supporters. There she said Mexico was not anyone’s piñata and cast the fight as one over independence and national dignity, not simply a diplomatic spat. By Monday, she was widening the target beyond Washington officials to a broader ecosystem of U.S. political actors and Mexican allies she said were aligned against her administration.

Her remarks came after a major escalation in April, when the U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment of 10 current and former Mexican officials from Sinaloa, including Governor Rubén Rocha Moya of the ruling Morena party. Prosecutors said the defendants were accused of partnering with the Sinaloa Cartel to move massive quantities of narcotics and weapons into the United States. That move gave Sheinbaum fresh political fuel at home, where she has framed foreign law-enforcement action as a test of Mexican autonomy.

Mexico’s Congress has responded on its own legal front. The lower house approved a constitutional amendment on May 28 by 307 votes to 128, with one abstention, and the Senate followed on May 29. The change would make foreign interference a possible ground for annulling elections, a proposal critics say could weaken electoral certainty and open the door to easier challenges of future results.

The convergence of those events has turned a familiar bilateral argument into something more strategic. For Sheinbaum, the politics are domestic and international at once: a nationalist defense of sovereignty, a signal to skeptical supporters, and a message to Washington that Mexico intends to push back harder while the security, migration, and trade agenda remains under strain.