Reports of President-elect Trump’s potential nomination of Kari Lake as ambassador to Mexico are receiving mixed reviews in the country, where rumors of the appointment have swirled for weeks.
Lake, a hard-line MAGA Republican who lost the open Senate race in Arizona to Sen.-elect Ruben Gallego (D) and previously lost the governor’s race there to now-Gov. Katie Hobbs (D), could present a special challenge for Mexico, where the U.S. ambassador holds unique — sometimes reviled — historical and political positions.
“[Kari Lake] would make John Gavin look like Mother Theresa of Calcutta in comparison,” said a former Mexican diplomat who asked for anonymity to speak frankly on the subject.
Gavin, who served as former President Reagan’s ambassador to Mexico from 1981-86, oversaw a period of increased tensions between the two nations over U.S. anti-communist interventions in Central America and an intense period in the war on drugs, including the 1985 murder of DEA Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena in Mexico.
Gavin’s tenure is seen as an uncomfortable interventionist period by many Mexicans, though Gavin, a U.S. citizen of Chilean and Mexican origin, knew the country’s politics intimately and held a degree in Latin American affairs from Stanford University.
“If you know nothing about Kari Lake, it’s important to get to know her because she will, if confirmed, be the next White House representative in Palacio Nacional and an ambassador the likes of whom we probably haven’t seen in Mexico since John Gavin’s tenure in the 80s, who is the antithesis of [Ambassador] Ken Salazar, former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s people pleaser, who will be substituted by a warrior,” wrote Raymundo Riva Palacio, an influential columnist for El Financiero.
Parallels to Gavin aside, Lake’s hawkish public stances on Mexico have raised concerns about her approach to a role overseeing one of the world’s most complicated bilateral relationships.
“Given some of the selections Trump already has announced for his administration, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he nominates Lake to be ambassador to Mexico. Or if Trump somehow believes that an individual who has spent her working life reading news stories off a teleprompter and losing elections to be the point person for border issues, trade, immigration and more with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum,” wrote EJ Montini, a columnist for the Arizona Republic.
U.S.-Mexico relations are likely to play a key role in the incoming Trump administration’s domestic and foreign policy agendas. The relationship touches a host of key issues including trade, migration, gun and drug trafficking, money laundering, and relations with regional and global rivals including Cuba and China.
But the bilateral relationship relies on extensive government-to-government ties that operate at all levels of public office, which can sometimes be rattled by political instability in the top ranks.
“With an incoming president that has once again used Mexico and Mexico-related issues as a dog-whistle and an electoral piñata, and who will speak loudly and carry a big stick when it comes to the U.S.'s number one trading partner, U.S. interests in Mexico City will require an ambassador who understands the country, and can operate not in black and whites but in the gray zones in between,” said Arturo Sarukhán, an international strategic consultant who served as Mexico’s ambassador to the United States from 2007-13.
“On the ground, fire-breathing threats should not be the alternative to appeasement.”
In his first term, Trump appointed Christopher Landau, a lawyer with little diplomatic experience, as ambassador to Mexico.
Landau, whose father was a longtime U.S. diplomat with extensive Latin American experience, was well received in Mexico as a serious interlocutor, even amid tensions over Trump’s policies toward the country.
Trump on Sunday announced he intends to nominate Landau to serve as deputy secretary of State under Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), meaning the top echelons of the State Department — Lake’s potential future bosses — could have unprecedented Latin America credentials.
And some in Mexico say Lake’s appointment should be seen as an opportunity, though her socially conservative vision could put her at odds with Sheinbaum and the Fourth Transformation movement (4T) behind the Mexican president.
“Lake’s nomination would bring Mexico certainty about the interlocution between Claudia Sheinbaum’s government and the U.S. president. Somebody so close to him and with his ideology would bring Trump closer to any negotiation. That’s why the 4T government should receive her with honors, collaborate with her and be sympathetic to her,” wrote Alejandro Domínguez, a columnist for local daily Milenio.
“However, Lake is the kind of character that members of the 4T detest,” added Domínguez, referencing her social conservatism.
Updated at 12:51 p.m. EST