Rain check
Sheinbaum misses Trump at the G7, plus the 2026 World Cup countdown begins
Welcome to The Mexpatriate.
Claudia Sheinbaum boarded an Air Canada commercial flight on Monday, June 16 to attend the G7 Summit in Alberta, marking the first time a Mexican president had been invited to crash the club since Felipe Calderón was included in the G8 + 5 summit of 2009 (the group dropped back to seven—Canada, U.S., U.K., Italy, Germany, France, Japan—after Russia was kicked out for annexing Crimea in 2014).
Sheinbaum was on the verge of the most anticipated moment of public diplomacy so far in her presidency: the first face-to-face meeting with Trump on Tuesday.
But, after waxing nostalgic about the days of the G8 (as he did at the 2018 summit) and posing for the “family photo” with the other six core heads of state, Trump abruptly exited, pursued by a war.
“You probably see what I see,” he said, in reference to the missiles flying in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. “I have to be back as soon as I can.”
Accompanied by her heads of security, economy and foreign affairs, Sheinbaum was prepared to address the most urgent bilateral issues with Trump in Kananaskis, but held bilateral meetings with Carney, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders instead. Back at her podium in the Palacio Nacional on Wednesday morning, Sheinbaum confirmed that she and Trump did have “a very good conversation” by phone, in which he apologized for having to leave early, and asked if she could stop in Washington on her way back from the summit. “There will be other opportunities to meet,” said Sheinbaum.
Meanwhile, it appears that the TACO principle (or strategy?) isn’t just limited to tariffs. In the midst of burgeoning anti-deportation protests, Trump posted to Truth Social last Thursday that “Changes are coming!” after “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business” had taken issue with ICE rounding up their employees (worth noting that Pilgrim’s Pride was the single largest donor to the Trump-Vance inaugural committee, pitching in US $5 million). This translated into a pause on raids on farms, meatpacking plants, hotels and restaurants—however, as of Monday, the DHS reversed last week’s exemption policy and the workplace enforcement actions will resume.
On Monday, Mexican government officials told reporters that 56,298 deported citizens have been repatriated since Trump took office. During roughly the same period of 2024, 81,946 Mexicans were repatriated from the United States. The optics of the “mass deportation” are not necessarily matched by the statistics (at least, of Mexicans).
In today’s newsletter, I take a tour of the national conversation about the peso and the countdown to the World Cup. I’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow—if you’d like to keep reading, please sign up for a paid subscription.
