U.S. President Donald Trump has been the world's worst headache for the past 18 months, and arguably no country has suffered more than Mexico. Of the three main contenders in Mexico's just-completed presidential election, none was as ill-prepared as the winner, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, to manage the bully in the White House. Nonetheless, the Mexican people have chosen him, and he will have to deal with Trump for much (if not all) of his six years in office.
Mexico's relations with the United States were not a central campaign topic, nor will they figure among Lopez Obrador's priorities. But they will surely affect Mexicans more than most other issues.
There are similarities between Lopez Obrador and Trump. Both appear to be sincere economic nationalists: Trump hopes to make the U.S. self-sufficient in aluminum and steel, while Lopez Obrador seeks the same for Mexico in corn, wheat, beef, pork and lumber. Both disapprove of trade treaties, although they temper their aversion with pragmatic selectivity: Trump left the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but not the North American Free Trade Agreement (for now), while Lopez Obrador says he will continue to re-negotiate NAFTA with the U.S. and Canada along the lines pursued by the current president, Enrique Pena Nieto.