Trump Reveals Who His First Call Would Be as President

Former President Donald Trump took the stage in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Monday and announced who he plans to call first if he wins the presidency on November 5.
Speaking to a less-than-full crowd in the 7,500-seat J.S. Dorton Arena, the Republican candidate said newly inaugurated Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum would be the first head of state he speaks with and announced he would impose tariffs on Mexico if it doesn’t stop migrants from crossing the shared border.
“I haven’t met her, and I’m going to inform her on day one or sooner, that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25 percent tariff on everything they send into the United States of America.”
Trump expressed confidence that his hard-line position would encourage Mexico to send soldiers to its southern border, along Guatemala and Belize, to prevent migrants from moving north.
Newsweek reached out to Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry for comment on Monday.
“It’s only got a 100% chance of working, because if that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 50, and [if] that doesn’t work, I’ll make it 75. For the tough guys, and I’ll make it 100,” Trump said. “Mexico is our number one trading partner. We would make a fortune,” he added.
“You know, their southern border is where they come in, they come right through. And by the way, there’s a 100 percent chance of working. It’s only a question,” he added.
Trump also mentioned the “great relationship” he had with former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who recently completed his six-year term, joking about his political views.
“I had a great relationship with the President of Mexico (López Obrador). He’s retired now. He was a good man—a socialist, but you can’t have everything, right?”
During his intervention, the former president discussed the construction of the border wall during his first term, expressing dissatisfaction with certain aesthetic aspects.
Monday’s comments are not the first time Trump has threatened Mexico with tariffs over illegal immigration. In 2019, as president, he announced plans to impose a 5 percent tariff on all Mexican imports, increasing monthly up to 25 percent until Mexico took effective action to curb illegal immigration.
This threat led Mexico to negotiate, agreeing to deploy its National Guard to the southern border and expand the Migrant Protection Protocols, which avoided the tariffs. Trump often mentions this at rallies, saying he secured “28,000 soldiers free of charge, no cost, and we had the greatest border in history.”
Mexico’s newly inaugurated President Claudia Sheinbaum, from the left-wing Morena party, has expressed her commitment to working closely with the next U.S. president, regardless of the election outcome. The Mexican Foreign Ministry stressed that the country’s migration strategy is independent of U.S. electoral politics.