There’s a predictability to how President Donald Trump talks about Mexico nowadays, and this week’s UN General Assembly speech went true to form.
In practically the same breath, he praised Mexico for “progress” against organized crime, then declared it “unacceptable” for the United States to share a 2,000-mile border with a territory controlled by cartels, calling on Mexico to “reclaim control of its soil from the enemies of humanity.” He went even further, branding the cartels “the ISIS of the Western Hemisphere.”
As with many scripted Trump addresses, his comments mixed snippets of substance with slabs of exaggeration.
He has a point on the progress. The U.S. administration has recognized the Sheinbaum government for seizing greater volumes of drugs, dismantling clandestine labs and deploying additional security forces to the border, crediting bilateral cooperation with helping eliminate high-profile figures such as CJNG leader “El Mencho.” Mexico’s own tally backs this up: 92 alleged cartel operators handed over to U.S. custody since February 2025, alongside a deployment of 10,000 National Guard troops at the border. Trump himself hinted at a warmer relationship than his rhetoric often suggests, noting at the UN that Mexico “doesn’t want the cartels either.”
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