Politics

‘Knife’s edge’: US-Mexico relationship teeters as World Cup begins

Published

3 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Just after halftime in their country’s match against South Africa Thursday afternoon, Mexican embassy officials were nervous.

Forward Julián Quiñones scored a goal in the first nine minutes, and spirits were high at the embassy’s Washington D.C. watch party where mini-burritos, cervezas and — in a nod to the bilateral relationship — McDonald’s hamburgers and walking tacos were flowing freely. But South Africa’s shots on Mexico’s goal were creating staccatos of panic as the score remained 1-0.

“So far, so good — but it could be better,” one diplomat quipped.

Talk to Mexican officials, diplomats and business leaders, and it’s a sentiment that’s apropos of the current state of the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Mexico as the two countries, along with Canada, kick off six weeks of World Cup festivities.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum — who did not attend the opening match — has earned plaudits on both sides of the border for her behind-the-scenes work to cultivate a solid working relationship with President Donald Trump, despite vastly different political orientations and persistent friction over migration, drug trafficking and trade.

Sheinbaum’s domestic challenges were also on full display outside the historic Azteca stadium on Thursday, where hundreds of protestors demanding pay raises for teachers and more resources for the search of 130,000 missing persons in Mexico clashed with police and threw cones and other projectiles into the security perimeter.

Now, at what should be a continental high-water mark — as North America unites to host the World Cup — the relationship is instead facing its greatest test. Tensions are running high over the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, a brewing extradition standoff over several Morena party officials — including the governor of Sinaloa — and Trump’s fresh threats on Wednesday to target drugs “coming in by land” via Mexico.

“It’s on a knife’s edge,” said Arturo Sarukhán, Mexico’s ambassador to the U.S. during the Bush and Obama administrations. “The paradox is that all of this is playing out as the World Cup kicks off, a World Cup that should have been a moment to celebrate the promise of North America, and to talk about the future of a North American century.”

The strain on the bilateral relationship beyond the World Cup is existential for Mexico — about 80 percent of the country’s exports flow to the United States — but also for the U.S. Mexico is the United States’ largest trading partner, with two-way trade topping $872 billion in 2025, accounting for roughly 15 percent of all goods coming into the U.S. And the integration runs deep into American supply chains, like autos and electronics, meaning that anything that seriously destabilizes the relationship is bad economic news for the U.S.

For now, the anxiety is largely one-directional, as Trump world remains broadly bullish on the U.S.-Mexico relationship even amid genuine turbulence. Two CIA officers were killed in an April crash in Chihuahua that revealed U.S. intelligence operatives working in the field alongside Mexican state investigators without, Mexican officials say, the federal government’s authorization. The Sinaloa indictments followed just over a week later.

“It’s a pressure point, but I also think if you ask people who work on this, they’d say that — relative to where we’ve been in the past — the security cooperation with Mexico is pretty good under Sheinbaum,” said Alex Gray, a former senior National Security Council official in the first Trump administration. “I think things are, all things considered, not bad.”

Even the original architects of the 2026 World Cup bid, which was won during the first Trump administration, agree that cracks in the U.S.-Mexico relationship were a more serious issue eight years ago.

North American soccer executives told Blue Light News that bringing the U.S. together with Mexico wasn’t easy at a time when Trump was calling NAFTA — the precursor to USMCA — “a disaster” and demanding Mexico pay for his border wall.

White House aides laud Sheinbaum’s cooperation on everything from preventing the spread of Ebola heading into the World Cup to efforts to combat drug trafficking. A senior White House official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the bilateral relationship, described it simply as “good.”

“I mean, there have been shared responsibilities, like, for example, the whole Ebola thing, right? We worked with them and Canada to ensure that there is proper vetting of individuals coming into the countries,” the official said. “We’re obviously working with her on combatting cartels on many fronts, so it’s good.”

The Mexican embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Yet Mexican officials have watched the relationship unfold with a kind of cognitive dissonance, marked by progress in one lane and crisis in another. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin’s meeting last month with Sheinbaum in Mexico, for instance, was seen as a positive step for the bilateral relationship, particularly for the security cooperation that has underpinned it.

But that goodwill is being tested on several fronts. The Morena indictments are creating a domestic quagmire for Sheinbaum, who is demanding “overwhelming and irrefutable proof” before moving against Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya and the nine other current and former Mexican officials who have been charged by the U.S. Justice Department with drug trafficking and weapons offenses.

Trade talks between the two countries had also been going reasonably well — so much so that the two have been talking without Canada even at the table. But Trump on Wednesday injected a fresh dose of uncertainty by saying he was “not looking to renew” the pact and dismissed the notion that the U.S. needed either of its neighbors. And the countries are all but certain to miss the July 1 date to renew the agreement, with a third round of talks scheduled in Mexico City the week of July 20.

The uncertainty has left proponents of the bilateral relationship nervously reading the tea leaves of Trump’s public appearances for any indication of growing irritation with Sheinbaum.

“What I’m seeing is it’s not just one single relationship: We have several individual and topic-based agendas. You have something very good in one hand and something struggling in the other. What we’re trying obviously is to have an umbrella relationship that is good, that makes the other individual agendas also good,” said Enrique Perret, managing director of the U.S.-Mexico Foundation. “But right now we don’t have that good umbrella relationship. That’s what we’re missing.”

The two leaders still have yet to meet at the White House, a move that some south of the border see as a carefully calculated effort on Sheinbaum’s part to not take any unnecessary gambles with the relationship, and avoid the kind of Oval Office spectacle that became commonplace between Trump and world leaders last year.

The two have only met once in person — at the official draw for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in December. Whether they’ll appear together at any games in the coming weeks remains an open question.

Politics

Canada defends blocking Ghana’s Thomas Partey from entry

Published

28 minutes ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

OTTAWA — The Canadian government defended its decision to ban Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey from entering the country as necessary for “maintaining the safety and security of Canadians.”

Partey has been charged with sexual assault and rape in the United Kingdom but has not been convicted of anything. He has pleaded guilty and is expected to stand trial in 2027.

“Under Canadian law, foreign nationals can be found inadmissible without a foreign conviction,” Matthew Krupovich of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told POLITCO in a written statement. “When there are reasonable grounds to believe an act that would trigger inadmissibility has been committed by an applicant, they can be deemed inadmissible to Canada.”

Ghana will play its opening World Cup match against Panama next Wednesday in Toronto. Partey entered the United States with Ghana’s team last week and has been present at the team’s training camp in Rhode Island. Ghana’s other two matches are scheduled to take place in the United States.

“Canada is proud to be a host country for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and is working to facilitate a successful event while maintaining the safety and security of Canadians,” said Krupovich. “Canada has been consistent that hosting major events does not change Canada’s immigration laws.”

Politics

Judge finds Lander not guilty in 26 Federal Plaza obstruction case

Published

38 minutes ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The ruling comes in the final days of the primary campaign between the former city comptroller and Rep. Dan Goldman…
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Politics

Todd Young talks World Cup geopolitics, Section 702 — and 2028

Published

43 minutes ago

June 12, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

BARGERSVILLE, Indiana — Sen. Todd Young settled into a booth at a Belgian-style brewhouse in a suburb just south of Indianapolis to watch Canada square off against Bosnia and Herzegovina — a little bleary-eyed after a storm-stricken flight back from Washington left him in Columbus, Ohio.

A staffer picked him up and drove him the three or so hours to his native Indiana, where he would spend just one night at home before jetting to New Jersey Saturday for the Brazil vs. Morocco match. There he would headline a fundraiser for a Republican colleague that Young declined to name.

Nothing could keep Young, a co-chair of the Congressional Soccer Caucus, perhaps the Senate’s biggest soccer fan and likely its only member who can score off a scissors kick, from watching the tournament.

On this afternoon, the second of the tournament, he was here to watch a game with Blue Light News and discuss the geopolitics of the day.

“One of the things I’m hopeful for is a really good showing by the United States, so that the game of soccer in the U.S. can use this as a springboard or a catalyst to continue to grow quite a bit into the next decade or so,” Young said.

He had blocked off tonight’s game to watch the U.S.’s opening match versus Paraguay with his soccer-playing daughter.

Young is also one of the key Republicans who is using the World Cup to squeeze Democrats on extending Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as it expires today. Democrats have refused to support even a short-term extension of the law ever since President Donald Trump nominated Bill Pulte, a political ally with no national security experience, to serve as acting DNI.

“It would be a lot of finger-pointing,” Young said of a potential domestic security lapse. “You should just pull out every stop right now to make sure that there are no problems.”

When Canada went down 1-0 in the 21st minute, he was less interested in the fact that our allies were losing — “they’re very close allies and important trading partners, and increasingly good at soccer, a new export for that country,” he told me — and more interested in the quality of the goal itself.

He dialed in on a replay of Jovo Lukić’s set piece goal.

“Hell of a goal: slip header, near-bar run,” said Young, nursing a Belgian-style blonde.

As halftime approached, our conversation turned to 2028, and the fact that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a fellow Republican, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, were expected to share box seats.

“Oh, that’s good for the country,” Young said, “Good for Marco. And good for Gavin.”

Young, who has spent a significant amount of time thinking about the GOP’s future, was less enthusiastic at answering a question about who might be at the top of his party’s own ticket in 2028. Was he more Team Rubio or Team Vice President JD Vance, a fellow former Midwestern senator with whom he built a relationship before Vance’s ascension?

“Oh, shit,” Young said. “I’m Team USA, brother. I’m Team USA.”