'Divorce is not an option': A prominent GOP lawmaker on the U.S., Mexico, and Trump's tariffs

President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico had a straightforward message for a bipartisan American delegation last week: Mexico and the U.S. are like a married couple, but one that can’t afford to split and call it quits.

“Divorce is not an option,” Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, one of two lawmakers who met with Sheinbaum in Mexico last Thursday, told Quartz in an interview. “We’re very dependent on each other.”

Bacon and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California traveled through Mexico over three days last week. They met Mexican agricultural, diplomatic, and other high-level officials, including Sheinbaum. Their visit came as President Donald Trump roils trade relations between the two countries, and with just about every other country in an unsparing campaign to tear down and remake the flow of global commerce.

Trump recently provided a three-month reprieve to Mexico to continue trade negotiations before more tariffs kick in, though there are sector-based levies on steel and aluminum still in place. He has repeatedly demanded the Mexican government to crack down harder on drug cartels, fentanyl smuggling, and illegal immigration. The congressional trip provided a glimpse into a bipartisan effort to inject fresh energy into a U.S.-Mexico relationship that used to be much healthier  —  and help keep it from sliding into life support.

Federal data shows U.S. trade with Mexico totaled $935 billion in 2024, making it one of the biggest U.S. trading partners. Trump has fixated on narrowing the trade deficit with dozens of U.S. trading partners through punitive tariffs. In Mexico’s case, it’s among the largest, at $171 billion.

Bacon is part of a small but potent free-trade wing of the GOP almost extinguished by Trump. The president has virtually sidelined Congress as he forges ahead with a global trade war.

"If Joe Biden would have done this or President Obama, the Republicans would have had a meltdown across the board," Bacon said. "I believe, in the end, free trade is the best as long as it's fair."

He described the U.S.-Mexico trade relationship as a “win-win” for both sides of the border and supports lower trade barriers with American allies. It doesn't hurt that trade is a boon to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional district, which Bacon has represented since 2017. Mexico is Nebraska’s biggest market for soybeans, beef, and corn. Total trade between Mexico and Nebraska amounted to $2.5 billion in 2022, larger than U.S. trade with the Latin American nation of Paraguay.

Trump's fluctuating tariffs were a big part of the discussion with Sheinbaum, Bacon said.

“When I look at it, the things we're buying from Mexico, there's things that we can't make here,” Bacon said. “By and large, we don't make avocados, for example. We're a big importer of avocados from Mexico. The things that Mexico buys, we provide value to them.”

President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum speaks during the daily morning briefing at Palacio Nacional on July 31, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Juan Abundis/ObturadorMX/Getty Images)

The Mexican and U.S. economies are deeply intertwined, the product of free trade agreements pushing both countries closer for decades — including one that Trump renegotiated during his first term. Americans got fresh tomatoes, year-round strawberries and cheaper electronics. For Mexico, a sizable piece of its economy shifted from relying on volatile oil exports to auto manufacturing, with prominent U.S. firms like Ford, Chrysler and GM housing part of their supply chains in the country.

That change powered the expansion of a richer Mexican middle class. Still it did come with trade-offs. The North American Free Trade Agreement was faulted for speeding up a flow of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico for cheaper labor, and many Mexican small farmers were put out of business.

Compared to Canada, Mexico has so far escaped the worst of Trump’s blunt-force campaign to rewire trade. Bacon believes that’s due in part to the restrained approach Sheinbaum has taken. She has avoided matching Trump’s bellicose rhetoric. 

“I think she's looking at the long-term, and she wants to have a good relationship with America,” Bacon said. “I think she's been pretty good about pushing back on President Trump, but doing it in a way that's just based on facts. She keeps the emotion out of it.”

Sheinbaum, the first woman to lead Mexico, has pledged to defend the country's interests without critiquing Trump by name. “Our relationship with the United States is one of equals, not of subordination. We are nobody’s piñata," Sheinbaum said at a news conference earlier this year.

During their meeting lat week, Sheinbaum brought up the issue of undocumented Mexicans living in the U.S., Bacon said. Trump has made accelerating deportations a centerpiece of his second term. That's starting to show up in economic data. Remittances sent from the U.S. to Mexico plunged 16% in June, which analysts attribute to a fear among Mexicans to seek employment in the U.S. Over the past month, Sheinbaum has promoted a new government card to help Mexicans living in the U.S. avoid paying a 1% remittance tax that took effect in a new Trump law. 

Observers say that Mexico might well come out ahead in Trump's new trade order, since most of its U.S. trade is still protected by earlier free trade agreements that keep it free of import taxes.

Gary Hufbauer, a trade expert and senior fellow at the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics, said that “if the relatively warm relationship between Trump and Sheinbaum holds, Mexico will end up, come October when the dust settles, in a favored position compared to other countries on exports to the U.S.”