Videgaray was a political obsessive from an early age. At seven, he watched a televised presentation by the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional and was inspired by the spectacle; as a grade-school student, he led a movement demanding additional recess. The PRI was a good bet for an ambitious young man. Founded in 1929, it ran Mexico virtually without competition for seven decades. When Videgaray got involved, in 1987, the Party’s politics were turning toward neoliberalism, and his economic expertise would prove valuable. Videgaray began working with Peña Nieto in 2005, as he was campaigning for governor of the State of Mexico, the country’s most populous and politically important region. After Peña Nieto won, Videgaray became his finance secretary, and he earned praise for vastly improving the state’s fiscal situation; among other things, he helped renegotiate eighty-seven per cent of the public debt. In 2012, he oversaw Peña Nieto’s Presidential campaign, and he was strikingly effective. (A worker on the rival campaign, quoted in the magazine Gatopardo, recalled that Videgaray was “feared and hated.”) In an election that has since been the subject of intense legal scrutiny, Videgaray helped lead Peña Nieto to victory. That year, Videgaray bought a villa in an exclusive golf community from the same contractor who had built Peña Nieto’s wife’s house. (He denied any wrongdoing, pointing out that he had arranged the purchase while he was out of government.)

Videgaray’s current influence has less to do with his financial or electoral acumen than with his friendship with Jared Kushner. The two met during Trump’s campaign, and they have worked closely behind the scenes to ease tensions between their bosses, like consiglieres for competing Mafia families. “Jared and Videgaray pretty much run Mexico policy,” the U.S. official told me earlier this year. “It’s all pretty much just between them. There’s not really any interagency relationships going on right now.” In the State Department, he explained, career diplomats were no longer kept informed: “U.S. officials sometimes learn the latest not from their own agencies but from their Mexican counterparts—especially Videgaray.”

A senior White House official told me that Kushner was introduced to Videgaray by a close friend, who saw an opportunity to “change the dialogue a little bit” between the U.S. and Mexico. Videgaray and Kushner met twice as they worked together to arrange Trump’s visit to Mexico. With local opinion strongly against Trump, the official said, the invitation was “very courageous,” but also “a brilliant act of foresight.” To avoid antagonistic press, they decided to hold the visit without announcing it in advance, and the Trump campaign was impressed by Videgaray’s organizational skill and by his circumspection. “There are a million ways they could have screwed us,” the official said. “Luis proved to be honorable.” As he and Kushner negotiated statements to be read at a joint press conference, they found common interests, the official told me. Videgaray pointed out that Mexico had its own concerns about migrants and drugs crossing its southern border; he agreed with Kushner that updating NAFTA’s provisions could be a “win-win” for their countries.

When Videgaray resigned, amid outrage over Trump’s visit, Trump tweeted, “Mexico has lost a brilliant finance minister and a wonderful man who I know is highly respected by President Peña Nieto.” In a follow-up tweet, he wrote, “With Luis, Mexico and the United States would have made wonderful deals together—where both Mexico and the US would have benefitted.” In Mexico, this only increased the perception that Videgaray was “Trump’s guy.” But he and Kushner continued to meet, and, in December, Kushner arranged for him to join Trump on the golf course—never mind that Videgaray does not play golf. (Videgaray denies this meeting.) His evidence of loyalty contributed to a close relationship, in which, the White House official said, direct access could “short-circuit long, protracted decisions.”

Videgaray, though, has often been made to remember that Trump campaigned on a promise of America First. Soon after the Inauguration, he and Mexico’s economy secretary, Ildefonso Guajardo, flew to Washington to meet their new counterparts. Not long after they landed, they learned that Trump had issued one of his first executive orders, calling for the construction of the border wall. Despite the insult, the officials decided to stay; Peña Nieto was due to join them the following week, and preparations needed to be made.

That day, Kushner took Videgaray to see Trump in the White House. Their goal, reportedly, was to persuade Trump to moderate a speech about the wall that he was intending to give in a few hours; they argued that it was “no way to begin” his relationship with Mexico. (Videgaray denies this.) Trump assented, and in his speech he included some language devised by Videgaray and Kushner, avowing that “a strong and healthy economy in Mexico is very good for the United States.” The Mexicans hoped that they were making progress—but then, in a televised speech, Peña Nieto politely reiterated that Mexico would not pay for the wall.

The next morning, Videgaray was back at the White House, meeting with Administration aides, when, from across the hallway, Trump tweeted, “The U.S. has a 60 billion dollar trade deficit with Mexico. It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost. If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting.” Videgaray immediately stopped the meeting and reached out to Peña Nieto, who soon responded with his own tweet, saying that he was cancelling his visit. Trump had been in office for six days, and he had already sent the U.S. relationship with Mexico into a tailspin.

In a press release intended to end the discord, the White House said that Trump and Peña Nieto had set aside their differences in an amicable telephone call. In fact, according to a transcript of their conversation published by the Washington Post, Trump repeatedly threatened to impose a border tax on Mexican goods, and even to engage in a trade war, in order to comply with his campaign promise to bring back American jobs. “I have been given as President tremendous taxation powers for trade and for other reasons—far greater than anybody understands,” Trump said. “I would love if you want to reinstitute the meetings between Luis and a staff that I will assemble in the United States. . . . They are dealmakers.” But, he added, “if we cannot work a deal, I want to tell you we are going to put a very substantial tax on the border.” Trump then turned to the funding of the wall. “We are both in a little bit of a political bind, because I have to have Mexico pay for the wall—I have to,” he said. “I have been talking about it for a two-year period, and the reason I say they are going to pay for the wall is because Mexico has made a fortune out of the stupidity of U.S. trade representatives. They are beating us at trade and they are beating us at the border, and they are killing us with drugs. . . . If you are going to say that Mexico is not going to pay for the wall, then I do not want to meet with you guys anymore, because I cannot live with that.”