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Claudia Ruiz Massieu, the former Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico, discussed the evolving U.S.-Mexico relationship amid expected tariffs and the influence of President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at an Institute of Politics forum on Friday afternoon.

The event, which featured Jorge Schiavon, a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana, and Brett Rosenberg ’12, a former U.S. State Department official and IOP resident fellow, marked the start of the annual student-led Mexico Conference hosted by the Harvard Kennedy School.

During the panel, Massieu addressed the shifting political dynamic between Mexico and the United States following the recent election of new presidents in both countries.

“In the context of a new era where everything is being questioned, the personalities of President Trump and President Sheinbaum will be shaping a lot of what happens,” she said.

Massieu said that the leadership styles of the two presidents not only shaped their approach to current affairs, but also contributed to their strong political influence and decisive electoral victories.

“One of those parallelisms that we see in both countries — it’s two hugely popular presidents with, I think unseen for many decades at least before, political backing as well and no opposition in Congress,” she said.

“They are very powerful in a larger sense than ever before, because they are largely unchecked in what they can and cannot do,” Massieu added.

This broader scope of political power has pushed Sheinbaum to take on a more “reactive” response to dealing with threats from the U.S. government, including Trump’s proposed 25 percent tax on Mexican imports.

Sheinbaum’s response strikes a balance between implementing retaliatory measures and making concessions, which Massieu attributed to the lessons learned from the policies of past Mexican presidents.

“I think she’s been drawing from these past two previous experiences and sort of crafting a middle, hybrid strategy that has been very effective,” she said.

Sheinbaum’s administration, along with her affiliated left-wing populist party, the National Regeneration Movement, currently controls the executive branch, both chambers of Congress, and a majority of Mexican state and municipal governments.

“That means that she can make constitutional reform in Mexico in exactly one week,” Schiavon said.

Despite the unprecedented unified government and mandate from the Mexican electorate, Sheinbaum has been constrained by the nation’s complicated relationship with the United States. While this has presented challenges, it also opened the door for “co-responsibility,” between Mexico and the U.S. on critical issues, according to Schiavon.

“It opens the possibility for the first time — I would say in many years — to see drug trafficking and international organized crime as a bilateral issue,” Schiavon said in reference to Trump’s recent designation of cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.”

“Now that we consider cartels as terrorist organizations, then the U.S. government has the power and the responsibility of also going against those cartels in U.S. soil,” he added.

This shared responsibility between the two countries extends beyond security issues to include trade relations. Massieu emphasized the role of tariffs has complicated the long-time interconnectedness of the U.S. and Mexican governments.

“The United States needs the trade agreement with Mexico,” she said. “We, of course, need it, but not because we only need it in terms of what we want to do individually as a nation.”

“We are intertwined in our production and supply chains, and that’s not easy to turn the clock back on,” she added.

Ultimately, these economic and trade constraints caused by potential tariffs will impact how Mexico is able to engage with its other trading partners like China and Canada, the latter of which is part of the trilateral North American trade agreement, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

“I think it’s being a good partner to understand that there is sensitive infrastructures or areas where your partner doesn’t feel comfortable to have another country participating,” Massieu said.

“We just need to be clear about those areas in which we should not, in order to keep our priority relationship in terms of the agreement that we have with the U.S. and Canada flowing,” she added.

—Staff writer Ava H. Rem can be reached at ava.rem@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avar3m.