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US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he proposed sending American troops to Mexico during a call with the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as part of efforts to tackle drug trafficking.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the US president said it was true he had made the offer, just a day after Sheinbaum disclosed at a public event that she had rejected such a proposal.
Instead, the Mexican president said she had suggested strengthening cooperation and intelligence sharing between the two countries.
Trump insisted his offer was aimed at helping Mexico deal with powerful drug cartels, whom he described as “horrible people that have been killing people left and right.”
He noted, “They’ve made a fortune on selling drugs and destroying our people. We lost 300,000 people last year to fentanyl and drugs.”
Credit: Alex Wroblewski / AFP
He stressed he would be “honoured” to deploy US forces to assist Mexico if asked, reiterating, “If Mexico wanted help with the cartels, we would be honoured to go in and do it. I told her that.”
The US president has frequently criticised Mexico for what he perceives as a lack of action in curbing the flow of drugs and migrants, particularly fentanyl, into the United States. He has also used the issue to justify the imposition of tariffs on Mexican imports in the past.
In March, Trump sparked outrage in Mexico after claiming the country was “entirely dominated by criminal cartels that murder, rape, and torture,” remarks that drew widespread condemnation.
On Sunday, he went further, suggesting Sheinbaum had rejected the offer due to fear of reprisals.
“The president of Mexico is a lovely woman, but she is so afraid of the cartels that she can’t even think straight,” he said.
