“Mexico is ruled by the cartels. I have a lot of respect for the president; she is an extraordinary woman. She is very brave, but Mexico has to defend itself from that,” Trump said at the White House.

At that time, he even stated that “The Mexican authorities are petrified. They are terrified to go to their offices. They are terrified to go to work because the cartels have tremendous control over Mexico, the politicians and the people who are elected,” causing a severe reaction from Claudia Sheinbaum, who denied such a context.

Trump's reaction came in response to a reporter's question about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's comparisons of drug cartels to terrorist groups like the so-called Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda.

Hegseth responded that the number of cartels has decreased because "they know they're going to be stopped" and accused the Biden administration of making it easier for drug trafficking to enter.

At the start of his second term, Trump designated Mexico's major drug cartels, such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), as terrorist groups.

Furthermore, upon returning to the White House, he threatened to impose tariffs on Mexico, claiming, without evidence,that the neighboring country "has provided safe havens for cartels to engage in the manufacture and transportation of dangerous narcotics, which together have caused the overdose deaths of hundreds of thousands of American victims. This alliance endangers the national security of the United States, and we must eradicate the influence of these dangerous cartels."