President-elect Donald Trump and his freshly selected Cabinet of loyalists are revisiting old plans to invade Mexico and “wage war” on its drug cartels, Rolling Stone reported on Wednesday.
“How much should we invade Mexico? That is the question,” a senior Trump transition member told the magazine.
Another source told Rolling Stone that Trump is planning a “soft invasion” of Mexico where American military leaders would be tasked with assassinating top drug cartel members.
Trump has long promised some kind of attack on Mexico’s drug cartels and ran his campaign on the promise of deporting millions of illegal migrants, who he blames for America’s fentanyl crisis, which was responsible for 70,000 deaths last year.
“The drug cartels are waging war on America—and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels,” Trump said in a 2023 statement. “The drug cartels and their allies in the Biden administration have the blood of countless millions on their hands. Millions and millions of families and people are being destroyed. When I am back in the White House, the drug kingpins and vicious traffickers will never sleep soundly again.”
In private conversations with GOP lawmakers, the president-elect said he would order Mexico to curb the flow of fentanyl in the U.S. or else he will order a military invasion, according to Rolling Stone’s report. Force could be used even if Mexican officials refuse to cooperate, making any such attack an act of war.
Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agencies show the majority of fentanyl comes not from illegal border crossings smuggled by migrants but through legal ports of entry by American citizens.
On Monday, Trump vowed to implement a 25% tariff on goods coming from Mexico and Canada to crack down on drug imports, which could have detrimental economic impacts for all three countries.
Many of Trump’s top Cabinet picks publicly support Trump’s plans to crack down on Mexican drug cartels. Vice President-elect JD Vance has expressed support for allowing the president to use "the power of the U.S. military to go after these drug cartels."
Trump's pick for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has previously referred to Mexican drug cartels as “terrorist-like organizations poisoning our population” and said on Fox News last year that military action may be required to “put the fear in the minds of the drug lords.”
Last year, Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Trump’s pick for national security adviser, also introduced a bill to authorize the use of military force against Mexican drug cartels.
Trump's "border czar" Tom Homan, meanwhile, has claimed Trump will definitely use the military against cartels. “President Trump is committed to calling them a terrorist organization and using the full might of the United States special operations to take them out,” Homan said.
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