It was the first call U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held with Mexico’s top military officials, and it wasn’t going well.
Hegseth told the officials that if Mexico didn’t deal with the collusion between the country’s government and drug cartels, the U.S. military was prepared to take unilateral action, according to people briefed on the Jan. 31 call. Mexico’s top brass who were on that call were shocked and angered, feeling he was suggesting U.S. military action inside Mexico, these people said. The Defense Department declined to comment.
Hegseth’s private warning—echoed by other Trump administration officials—now looms over Mexico’s trade talks with President Trump. Their fear: Demands that Mexico end fentanyl smuggling and migrant trafficking are quietly backed by potential U.S. military action—and not just 25% tariffs that would cripple the country’s economy.
Trump said those tariffs would go into effect on Mexico and Canada—the U.S.’s two biggest trading partners—on Tuesday, along with an additional 10% on China, sparking an effort by those countries in recent days to find a way to head off the levies.
“We still have three days,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said early Friday. A spokesman for Sheinbaum declined to comment on January’s call with Hegseth.