The Trump administration has dismantled USAID, citing the "America First" agenda and specifically targeting the agency to eliminate what the White House and conservative critics characterize as "woke," "weaponized," and "wasteful" spending.
Around the world, left-wing governments have fiercely criticized Donald Trump for closing USAID. However, there was one exception that left many perplexed, even Elon Musk. Mexican Jewish President Claudia Sheinbaum supported the dismantling of USAID. She specifically cited USAID's financial support for Mexican NGOs and watchdog groups that criticized the government, such as Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI).
The Mexican government argued that while USAID funds were marketed as support for democracy and human rights, they were largely funneled to political opponents and organizations that opposed their administration. Calls for "transparency" and "fight against corruption" are usually a kind of external influence. Sheinbaum framed the agency’s financing of internal watchdog and journalistic groups as a direct violation of Mexico's sovereignty. She doesn't accept this. If the U.S. government intends to provide foreign assistance, the funds should be distributed transparently through official bilateral channels rather than through non-profits with political agendas.
Claudia Sheinbaum has maintained a highly strategic, transactionally stable, yet increasingly tense relationship with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. While she has succeeded in cultivating a cordial personal rapport with Trump to protect the Mexican economy, she has simultaneously hardened her stance against specific U.S. policies that threaten Mexican sovereignty.
Sheinbaum is a lovely Jewish mother and grandmother who has navigated her professional and academic life alongside family. While she is a lifelong leftist and progressive on social issues, she governs with pragmatic, culturally traditional, and nationalist tendencies. Her four grandparents immigrated to Mexico to escape antisemitism and the Holocaust, her parents raised her in a secular, science-oriented, and non-religious household. Her family instilled a strong focus on education, public service, and social justice.
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar’s condemnation of the "Jewish whore" graffiti in late 2025 was a targeted rejection of antisemitism and misogyny rather than an endorsement of political alliance. While Sheinbaum—Mexico's first president of Jewish heritage—has categorically ruled out cutting off all diplomatic relations with Israel entirely, the ongoing verbal sparring, international court petitions, and aggressive rhetoric ensure bilateral relations remain cold. However, a Jewish lady is always a Jewish lady.
