OAN Staff Blake Wolf
11:56 AM – Sunday, May 4, 2025
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has rejected President Donald Trump’s proposal of sending U.S. troops into Mexico to combat Mexican cartel drug trafficking operations.
President Trump held a 45-minute phone call with Sheinbaum on April 16th, pressuring the Mexican president into allowing U.S. forces into Mexico to lead the charge against Mexican cartels, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The president reportedly pressured Sheinbaum into combating the drug cartels who smuggle the vast flow of fentanyl and other illicit substances into the United States, threatening to take action in Mexico should the nation fail to act.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), unintentional drug overdoses is atop the leading cause of death of Americans ages 18 to 44.
“The cartels are waging war on America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing,” Trump stated in a joint address to Congress. “The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture and exercise total control.”
“Mexico is very, very afraid of the cartels,” the president stated last month. “We want to help her. We want to help Mexico, because you can’t run a country like that. You just can’t.”
Sheinbaum confirmed on Saturday that she rejected Trump’s offer during a conversation with the U.S. President last month, stating that U.S. troops on the ground in Mexico is off the table. She also added that Mexico is willing to cooperate on information sharing.
“No, President Trump, our territory is inalienable, sovereignty is inalienable,” she stated.
“We can collaborate. We can work together, but with you in your territory and us in ours. We can share information, but we will never accept the presence of the United States Army on our territory,” Sheinbaum continued. “We are not a protectorate or colony of any foreign country.”
Both sides described the call as productive, with White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly stating that the two countries are delivering on creating a secure border, however, “Mexico still must do more to protect Americans from dangerous foreign terrorist organizations and the drugs and violence they flood into communities on both sides of the border.”
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