On August 19, 2021, the columnist Raymundo Riva Palacio listed in El Financiero occasions on which President López Obrador had contradicted members of his own government in public. Of Finance Secretary Arturo Herrera, he wrote that the president “lo desmintió y descalificó, dejándolo en ridículo” (contradicted and discredited him, leaving him looking ridiculous). Of Alfonso Romo, he wrote: “lo exhibió ante el sector empresarial” (he exposed him before the business community).
Riva Palacio described the president’s way of criticizing his officials with the words “públicamente, donde duele más” (publicly, where it hurts most).