On Sunday, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador—AMLO, as he is widely known—gave a rare interview to 60 Minutes. With just months left in office, AMLO emphasized his good relations with both the Trump and Biden administrations. Yet largely lost in the interview itself was the extent to which the leftist López Obrador and the former Republican president and current frontrunner saw eye to eye during the period in which they overlapped in office. At a moment when a massive influx of migrants has created tensions between the neighboring countries, the two populist leaders' successful cooperation on border security, immigration, and trade offers lessons for future administrations on both sides of the border.
“AMLO has been Trump’s sole defender on the Latin American left.”
To the surprise of allies and foes alike, AMLO has been Trump’s sole defender on the Latin American left—despite having penned the anti-Trump bestseller Oye, Trump before taking office. Over the past year, the Mexican president has condemned the lawfare campaign against Trump as “antidemocratic,” and Trump, in turn, has lauded him for his support. In a recent interview with Univision, Trump stated: “Your president is a friend of mine. He’s a tremendous man. He’s been very loyal to me. I’ve been very loyal to him. We just got along.” López Obrador is often chastised by the opposition for his coziness with Trump, to which he once retorted that the former president is “a capitalist and imperfect, but is a good person and I respect him.”