Incoming president Donald Trump has already made many broad declarations about what he intends to do immediately after he’s inaugurated. Much of it was hinted at during the campaign, but not with much specificity.

First and foremost to this story is the fact that he clarified some of his tariff edicts on Monday, saying that he was going to target some of the US’s biggest trading partners, Mexico and Canada. Trump vowed a blanket tariff of 25% on goods from both countries “until they clamped down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and migrants crossing the border,” according to Reuters.

The move would violate an existing trade deal agreed to between the countries.

Not even a full day passed before Mexico’s Presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo issued her response: This means (trade) war. She warned that Mexico will be just as unequivocal in exacting its own penalties against US imports to her country.

The letter she sent him, dated the 26th, first addressed the migrant issue:

You may not be aware that Mexico has developed a comprehensive policy to assist migrants from different parts of the world who cross our territory en route to the southern border of the United States. As a result, and according to data from your country’s Customs and Border Protection (CBP), encounters at the Mexico–United States border have decreased by 75% between December 2023 and November 2024. Moreover, half of those who arrive do so through a legally scheduled appointment under the United States’ CBP One program. For these reasons, migrant caravans no longer arrive at the border.

Even so, it is clear that we must work together to create a new labor mobility model that is necessary for your country, as well as address the root causes that compel families to leave their homes out of necessity. If even a small percentage of what the United States allocates to war were instead dedicated to building peace and fostering development, it would address the underlying causes of human mobility.

Sheinbaum went on to school Trump on fentanyl as well, reminding him that the ingredients to MAKE dangerous drugs like fentanyl were entering not just the United States, but Canada and Mexico as well — from Asian countries.

On another note, and for humanitarian reasons, Mexico has consistently expressed its willingness to help prevent the fentanyl epidemic in the United States from continuing. This is, after all, a public health and consumption problem within your society. So far this year, Mexican armed forces and prosecutors have seized tons of various types of drugs, 10,340 firearms, and have detained 15,640 individuals for violence related to drug trafficking.

Furthermore, the Mexican Congress is in the process of approving a constitutional reform to classify the production, distribution, and commercialization of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs as a serious crime without bail. However, it is publicly known that the chemical precursors used to produce this and other synthetic drugs are illegally entering Canada, the United States, and Mexico from Asian countries. This underscores the urgent need for international collaboration.

But Sheinbaum wasn’t done yet. She chided the president-elect for the problems that are originating here in America and affecting her own country, including the dangerous weapons that Mexico doesn’t even have a manufacturing industry for.

You must also be aware of the illegal trafficking of firearms into my country from the United States. Seventy percent of the illegal weapons seized from criminals in Mexico come from your country. We do not produce these weapons, nor do we consume synthetic drugs. Tragically, it is in our country that lives are lost to the violence resulting from meeting the drug demand in yours.

Without wavering, Sheinbaum told Trump that he was going about things all wrong, and that threats and tariffs will never solve the problems of drug consumption or immigration. Those things have entirely different root causes than economic ones entirely, and cannot be controlled by any single government, as Trump well knows.

Then she told Trump she will match him tariff for tariff.

For every tariff, there will be a response in kind, until we put at risk our shared enterprises. Yes, shared. For instance, among Mexico’s main exporters to the United States are General Motors, Stellantis, and Ford Motor Company, which arrived in Mexico 80 years ago. Why impose a tariff that would jeopardize them? Such a measure would be unacceptable and would lead to inflation and job losses in both the United States and Mexico.

I am convinced that North America’s economic strength lies in maintaining our trade partnership. This allows us to remain competitive against other economic blocs. For this reason, I believe that dialogue is the best path to understanding, peace, and prosperity for our nations. I hope our teams can meet soon to continue building joint solutions.

Trump’s plan would, as every single economist has agreed, absolutely decimate the economies of all three North American nations if each of our neighbors to the north and south imposed the same tariffs on the United States as Trump is threatening.

More than 80% of exports from Mexico and more than 75% of exports from Canada came to the United States last year. That’s due to NAFTA, which benefits all three countries. It makes North America a tightly-knit coalition of trading partners who save not just on pricing of goods, but availability as well. GM can ship a car much faster from Guanajuato than from Melbourne.

But Trump believes that he can strong-arm his way to victory, as usual. Parece que la presidenta también tiene brazos fuertes.

(You’ll feel better if you look that up yourself, so you can see that her language is as powerful as ours.)