EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: I'm Eyder Peralta in Mexico City. For days now, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has been downplaying any concerns about a second Trump presidency, saying the U.S. and Mexico have a special relationship no matter who's in charge. But yesterday morning, she addressed those concerns without talking about it.
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PRESIDENT CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "To all Mexicans, I say there is no reason to worry."
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SHEINBAUM: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "To our brothers and sisters who live in the United States, to the businesspeople, there is no reason to worry."
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SHEINBAUM: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Mexico will always prevail."
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PERALTA: But on the streets of Mexico City, what we find is dread.
DAVID SALAZAR: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "This is bad news for Mexico," said David Salazar, who's 68 and retired.
SALAZAR: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "Because the man has no temperament," he says. "He has no maturity, no judgment."
SALAZAR: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "He's going to get us into lots of trouble," he says. Trump spent his first term in office denigrating Mexico and Mexicans. And during this campaign, he's threatened steep tariffs and to close the border. At one point, he said he wouldn't hesitate to use military force to stop fentanyl from flowing north. But Rafael Fernandez de Castro, who runs the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California San Diego, says he's not too worried.
RAFAEL FERNANDEZ DE CASTRO: It might get worse, but we know how to do it (laughter).
PERALTA: Former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, he says, was able to manage Trump. He appeased Trump by instituting tougher migration policies. But mostly, says Fernandez, the relationship remained strong because of money. The U.S. and Mexico trade billions each year. Even if Trump wanted to bomb Mexico, says Fernandez, lots of powerful businesses would warn against it. It's exactly what happened when Trump threatened to undo a free trade agreement during his last term in office.
FERNANDEZ: When he wanted to get rid of NAFTA, they came to him and said, hey, hey, hey. Take it easy, because Mexico is fairly important for us.
PERALTA: Mexico is the No. 1 destination of U.S. exports. So in the end, most of Trump's bluster evaporated, and he ended up signing a new trade deal that was nearly identical to the one he railed against.
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PERALTA: Back on the streets of Mexico City, we meet Pablo Barrios Bautista, a gardener.
PABLO BARRIOS BAUTISTA: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "For Latinos," he says, "Trump is not trustworthy." And this time around, he thinks it'll be harder for Mexico. President Sheinbaum is the country's first female president, and she will have to face off with a man Barrios calls a misogynist. What he hopes is that the Mexican president confronts Trump.
BARRIOS: (Speaking Spanish).
PERALTA: "I want her to be bold," he says. "I want her to be smart and principled." Everything, he says, that Trump is not.
Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Mexico City.
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