Despite their differences, Mexico’s new president and President Trump vow to work together

David Agren | Special to USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Mexico elects leftist president by a landslide Andrés Manuel López Obrador wins Mexican presidency, becoming first leftist to govern in decades.

MEXICO CITY – The landslide winner of Mexico’s presidential election pledged Monday to pursue cordial relations with a fellow populist, U.S. President Donald Trump, though their two nations are at sharp odds over trade and immigration.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a leftist who swept to victory Sunday by promising to end Mexico's rampant government corruption and killings by drug cartels, thanked Trump for tweeting congratulations shortly after he was declared the victor.

In an interview with Televisa, Lopez Obrador called Trump's tweet “very respectful. That is what we always want to maintain with the U.S. government, that there be mutual respect.”



“We are never going to disrespect the U.S. government, because we want them to respect us,” Lopez Obrador said. “At the appropriate moment, we are going to get in touch, to reach an understanding” with the Trump administration.



Trump tweeted Sunday, “I look very much forward to working with him. There is much to be done that will benefit both the United States and Mexico!”

Lopez Obrador won 53 percent of the vote in a multi-candidate race – the highest total since 1982. Trump barely registered as an issue despite strong disapproval of him because of his attacks on Mexico for refusing to pay for a border wall to stop illegal entries into the USA and for running a large trade surplus with its northern neighbor.

The two men hail from different worlds: Trump was born into wealth and made a fortune in New York real estate and by marketing his name as a brand. Lopez Obrador grew up in a small town in southeastern Tabasco state, where he started in politics as a director in the country’s indigenous institute and lived in an impoverished Chontal Maya community for years.

Yet both are nationalistic populists – Trump on the political right and Lopez Obrador on the left – and that may help them create a personal bond, some analysts said.

“They will understand each other (but) disagree on everything,” said Federico Estevez, a political science professor at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico. “It’s ‘Mexico first’ versus ‘America first,’ and the dice are loaded in favor of the North.”

Lopez Obrador tweeted Monday that he received a call from Trump and the two spoke for a half-hour. "I proposed that we explore an integral agreement of development projects, which generate jobs in Mexico, and with that reduce migration and improve security," he said. "There was respectful treatment, and our representatives will speak more."

Solving their differences will be a challenge, given how far apart they are on trade and immigration issues.

Lopez Obrador, 64, has moderated his tone since running in 2006 on a platform of putting “the poor first.” He still pledges to make the poor and “forgotten” his priority, but he has tried to reassure financial markets since winning.

AMLO, as he’s commonly called, has endorsed the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, which Trump insists on renegotiating on more favorable U.S. terms. Mexico's new president promised prudent public finances and respect for the central bank’s autonomy.

AMLO's victory "represents a rejection of corruption,” said Ilan Semo, historian at the Iberoamerican University.

“The Mexican state was corrupt through all the 20th century. But in the last few years, it’s been excessive,” Semo said. Politicians “took money straight from the treasury” through schemes such as shell companies and didn’t try to spread some of the loot to poor parts of the population as they did in past years, Semo said.

Along with the presidency, Lopez Obrador’s MORENA party and its allies won the most votes in 30 of Mexico’s 31 states. His coalition appeared poised to take four of eight gubernatorial races, the Mexico City mayor’s office and majorities in both houses of Congress.

The governing Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which ruled Mexico for most of the past century, was projected to claim just 16 percent of the vote.

The defeat was so stinging for the PRI that it was losing in President Enrique Peña Nieto’s hometown of Atlacomulco, a PRI stronghold that dominated regional politics for decades.

Peña Nieto congratulated AMLO and promised a smooth transition.

Lopez Obrador’s win marked the first time in 80 years that a leftist politician won power in Mexico. “We’ve tried other parties, and there’s been no change,” said María Elena Torres, 44, a physical education teacher in Mexico City’s tough Iztapalpa borough.

Some AMLO supporters found solace in his victory after Mexico lost in the World Cup to Brazil, 2-0, on Monday.

“A soccer game is exciting,” said Héctor Gómez, 26. “But it doesn’t compare to electing a president who promises to change Mexico.”