Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during her daily press conference at Palacio Nacional in Mexico City on Sept. 4.YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images

Nine days after Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum was fielding a question about Canada.

What about this Canadian minister – it was then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland – suggesting that Mexico might have to be cut out of the USMCA trade deal?

That had ruffled Mexican feathers. Two weeks later, Ms. Sheinbaum faced another question about a faithless Canadian politician. This time a reporter asked about Doug Ford, “a premier, as they call them,” from Ontario, Canada, “who literally said that being compared with Mexico is the most insulting thing he’s heard” from the United States.

Mr. Ford’s comments were taken by Mexico’s elite as pretty insulting, too. The quick call to cut Mexico loose, so soon after Mr. Trump’s second election, turned out to be woefully misguided.

It’s Prime Minister

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