Political gaslighting distorts reality to serve a specific agenda, and while Donald Trump is often seen as its leading example, Claudia Sheinbaum may not be the honest counterexample many believe. In this piece, I explore the similarities in their tactics and how echo chambers shape our perception of both.
By definition, political gaslighting refers to the manipulation of public opinion through deceptive and misleading information.
It involves creating confusion and distorting reality, with the ultimate goal of promoting a political agenda. Typical political gaslighting tactics include lying, misrepresenting facts, minimizing serious issues, and creating distractions.
MIT SMR México se financia mediante anuncios y sociosThese tactics are the foundation of Donald Trump’s political career and typical of his reactions when confronted with the truths or facts about his policies, but have you thought of the gaslighting similarities between Trump and Claudia Sheinbaum?
I’ve previously discussed how echo chambers are a determinant factor in the news we consume and how they shape our political opinions.
Within my echo chamber (because undeniably we all have one), I’m continually bombarded with information about how Claudia Sheinbaum is the example to follow for how to stand up to Trump and his administration. That is a lie, and here’s why.
Mexico’s Future: Tariffs, Narco Extraditions, and a Perpetual Waiting Game
Amid an all-out assault on the Latino community in the United States fueled by mass deportation raids, I’m hesitant to give the Trump administration credit for any policy or any political victory.
However, his administration is achieving something that was previously unthinkable—exposing the naked truth of corruption in Mexico and holding its leadership accountable for their role in money laundering and the proliferation of drug trafficking to the United States.
The U.S. Treasury Department has been busy investigating what seemed to be legitimate Mexican financial institutions – CIBanco S.A., Intercam Banco, S.A., and Vector Casa de Bolsa, S.A. de C.V. – and accusing them of being the primary agents of money laundering tied to Mexican Cartels and the fentanyl crisis.
The Treasury Department was given the authority to do so by two distinct policies: the classification of Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations and the passing of the Fentanyl Sanctions Act.
As was the case in the capture of Mexican drug lord Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, the Mexican government came to find out after U.S. authorities had already taken action. AMLO lashed out at Biden and his administration for taking such action without the consent of the Mexican government.
Still today, Zambada’s lawyers argue that he was kidnapped and should be returned to Mexico, with many in Morena’s leadership agreeing to that argument.
When Mexican reporter Anabel Hernandez published an article linking Morena’s leadership to El Mayo’s lawyers, Sheinbaum wasted no time in denying the allegations, and in her best imitation of Trump, said the following:
“She has established a form of journalism that is not journalism. It is fiction, so she’s not credible for the people of Mexico. She lost credibility a long time ago.”
Sound familiar? The personal attack on the reporter’s credibility, the faint dismissal, and the lack of accountability are all Trump-like.
In the case of these three financial institutions, Sheinbaum began her daily morning press conference by minimizing the issue and stating, “Mexico was no one’s piñata”, and that the Treasury Department had not provided sufficient evidence to support its claims.
She also asserted that Mexico would not be pressured into taking any action without concrete proof and that Mexico would conduct its own investigation. That’s laughable.
How can Mexico conduct its own investigation when AMLO’s chief of staff is the former head of Vector and has an ownership interest? Sheinbaum owes her political career to AMLO. He hand chose her as his successor. Do you think that she’s going to challenge any interest that is so closely tied to her political mentor in a system that allows her to do so?
The answer is no, she doesn’t have the political capital, considering that she kept much of AMLO’s cabinet as part of her closest advisors.
Stay with me on this one. Depending on what side of the border you were born on, the name Cesar Chavez will mean something very different.
For someone like me, who’s formative years were spent in Mexico City, the name Cesar Chavez refers to the great Mexican boxing champion.
I had been exposed to the American civil rights leader but never truly identified with his struggle (I would later correct that by working as a union organizer for the United Farm Workers in the strawberry fields in Watsonville when I was in college), but for the purposes of making my point, I wasn’t familiar with him.
I was in high school when the civil rights leader passed away. The school principal made an announcement saying something to the extent of:
“It is with great sadness that I am sharing that Cesar Chavez has passed away”.
The reaction of the student body was eye-opening. A student got up and very seriously proclaimed, “And he never got knocked out”.
It sounds funny, but it was serious. To him, like for millions of Mexicans, Cesar Chavez is an all-time great and the embodiment of a certain type of Mexican identity.
As the life of the boxing champion would later unravel into a downward spiral of substance abuse, anger, and close relations to the Sinaloa Cartel that he himself has openly talked about, his son would follow in the same footsteps.
“Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Arrested by ICE,” stated the Los Angeles Times headline. It was pure emotional manipulation and deception, and shame on the LA Times for doing that. It feeds right into Trump’s narrative of a biased media that only covers stories from angles that are convenient to them and are fake news.
It wasn’t until you opened the article that you read the real reason why Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was detained. But the damage is done in the first headline you read.
I was lucky enough to catch the breaking news on Instagram only seconds after it was published.
I made it a point to closely observe the comments, because they would demonstrate the emotional and nationalistic manipulation that is so closely tied to the Mexican community that is under siege in Los Angeles and other urban areas across the country. It predictably did so.
“We make money for America and then you deport us”.
That was the most prevalent type of comment. Look it up.
Sheinbaum wasted no time in reacting with what seemed to be a responsible response of hoping that he would be deported to Mexico and calling him a threat to public safety. Why?
Because the Mexican government got caught off guard by American authorities yet again.
It wasn’t until the following day that it was revealed that Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. had an open arrest warrant dating back to March of 2023 in Mexico for his close connections to organized crime. Why didn’t the Mexican government arrest him? They knew where he was then, and even before his embarrassing fight with Jake Paul just a few days before his arrest.
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. is currently nowhere to be found. He didn’t show up to his deportation hearing, and his lawyers claim they don’t know his current location.
Pay close attention to the cooperation of Ovidio Guzman, son of “El Chapo,” who just a few days before went into the witness protection program and agreed to cooperate with U.S. authorities. That’s where the answer lies.
Caso Julio César Chávez Jr., ¿por qué la toma de decisiones efectivas es clave para la reputación?
When AMLO won the Mexican presidency in 2018, many Democrats cheered (particularly Latinos) and looked at him as a beacon of hope, someone who would be an ideological partner, but that was not to be the case. Rapidly, AMLO and Trump proved to be populists who had common interests and liked each other.
What connected them was their desire to transform their countries via deceiving political discourse and gaslighting tactics that won them a cynical and disengaged electorate that was tired of the status quo.
What wasn’t evident was the damage that each of them would do to their countries by catering to gaslighting tactics that never had the interest of the majority of the population, only their political whim.
Claudia Sheinbaum is a continuation of AMLO; don’t forget that the next time you read about how she’s an example to follow for how to defeat Donald Trump.
