WHAT WAS CLAIMED
Mexico's president threatened a global boycott of US goods in an open letter to US voters.
OUR VERDICT
False. There's no evidence Claudia Sheinbaum made the statement, which has been circulating online without attribution since before she became president.
AAP FACTCHECK - As world leaders react to Donald Trump's tariffs, a social media post is falsely claiming that the Mexican president threatened a global boycott of US products.
Variations of a supposed open letter, which is being incorrectly attributed to Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum, have been circulating online since the Republican president's first term - seven years before she was elected.
A Facebook post on March 18, 2025, is captioned: "Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum responded to Trump's threats with a backhand."
"So, you voted to build a wall," the supposed letter reads. "Well, dear Americans, even if geography isn't your strong suit—since you consider America a country rather than a continent—you should know that beyond that wall, there are 7 billion people."
It goes on to suggest the world's population may boycott US goods.
"And we also know that if these 7 billion consumers stop buying American products, unemployment will rise, and your economy—trapped within its self-imposed wall—will crumble to the point where you'll beg us to tear it down. We didn't want to do this, but... You wanted a wall? Well, you got one."
The Mexican president, however, has never made this statement.
Sheinbaum became the 66th president of Mexico in October 2024 after serving as mayor of Mexico City for five years.
Wording very similar to the "letter" in the post has been circulating online in Spanish since January 2017, just weeks after Trump was first inaugurated in the wake of a campaign to "build a wall" on the Mexican-US border.
At the time, the letter was attributed to "the rest of the world".
While Sheinbaum has made sarcastic quips about Trump's policies in the past - once joking the US should be renamed "Mexican America" after he renamed the Gulf of Mexico - there is no evidence she made the statement being shared on Facebook.
The wording doesn't appear on her Instagram, Facebook or X accounts or official press releases.
Trump imposed additional 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico in February 2025. However, these were delayed for a month before exemptions on about half of Mexican imports were introduced.
Relations between the countries appear to have improved since.
Mexico claimed its diplomatic relationship with the US had spared it from sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration on much of the world on April 2, 2025.
In a Facebook Live video posted on the same day, Sheinbaum described the "preferential situation" as the result of "the respectful relationship between the two nations, as well as the strength and unity between the people and the government".
The falsely attributed statement has also been debunked by Reuters, Politifact, The Dispatch and Snopes.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, BlueSky, TikTok and YouTube.
