Former United States President Donald Trump has said he could use the U.S. military against Mexican cartels if he is re-elected as president on Nov. 5.
In an interview with Fox News, the Republican Party’s presidential candidate was asked whether “strikes” against Mexican cartels — which ship large quantities of narcotics including fentanyl to the U.S — were “still on the table.”
A clip from the interview of Republican Party nominee Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance with Jesse Watters.
“Absolutely,” Trump responded.
Fox News host Jesse Watters, who interviewed the 45th president of the United States and his 2024 running mate J.D. Vance, rephrased his question, asking Trump whether he was prepared to use military force against “our biggest trading partner.”
“Absolutely. Mexico’s going to have to straighten it out really fast or the answer is absolutely,” Trump said.
“They’re killing 300,000 people a year with fentanyl coming in,” he said, offering a figure that is almost triple the number of estimated drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2023.
Trump said that “Mexico is going to be given a very short period of time to police their border” and if they don’t do the job effectively, his government will take action.
“I’m sure they’re going to do not well and then you’re going to see the action start,” he said.
Trump asserted that “Mexico is petrified of the cartels because they’ll take out a president in two minutes.”
“They’re petrified of the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico,” he said.
The New York Times reported in late 2023 that Trump, while president, “talked privately about shooting missiles into Mexico to take out drug labs.”
The Times also said that “Republican lawmakers have drafted a broad authorization for the use of military force against cartels” and “pushed for designating Mexican cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”
“… If Mr. Trump returns to the White House in 2025, he has vowed to push for the designations and to deploy Special Operations troops and naval forces to, as he put it, declare war on the cartels,” The Times said in October 2023.
Rolling Stone reported in May that “if he wins a second term in November, Donald Trump wants to covertly deploy American assassination squads into Mexico soon after he’s sworn into office again, according to three people who’ve discussed the matter with the former U.S. president.”
Vance: Mexico in danger of becoming a “narco-state”
Senator Vance, unveiled as Trump’s vice president pick last week, defended the plan for United States forces to target Mexican cartels given the damage they inflict on the U.S.
“It’s funny that people accuse us of being bombastic for saying the cartels — we need to go after them. What about American citizens who are losing their lives by the tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, because we won’t do something serious about the cartels? That is what’s reckless,” he told Fox News.
“… I actually believe that the Mexican government, even though they couldn’t say that, want President Trump to be serious about the cartels because that poison [fentanyl] is destabilizing their country too. Fourteen billion dollars coming into the cartels, and that was a couple of years ago, it’s probably more today,” Vance said.
“They’re not going to be a real country anymore, they’re going to become a narco-state unless we get some control over this,” he asserted.
Mexico News Daily
Great. Trump and his VP Vance on the “same page” about military action in a foreign country against the cartels. And where is the evidence supporting Vance’s claim of hundreds of thousands of US Citizens being killed by the Cartels. Where is the “we will not engage in military action across our border…comments Trump has made time and time again…until he has not, as in the case of Mexico. A Trump Presidency. Can’t wait!!
I hope you’re being sarcastic!!!
Absolutely eradicate the Cartels way past due AMLO had his chance did nothing hugs and kisses disgusting
Mexico Beach goe
Keep out of the sun! Or better yet, get your butt out of Mexico.
When we have a President Harris and Sheinbaum working together in 2025, gun and drug violence can be a focus for both countries and will measurably decrease.
HAH, they’ll both be working for the cartels!
AMLO’s policy is to give hugs, Harris and Sheinbaum’s policy will take it a step further by gapping their legs.
That is so rude and really makes no sense
Mexico, China and Russia, the USA is so great they don’t need trade, only the demand for drugs is on their side of the border, and who will provide all that extra cash to the CIA?
Why do you think Americans are paying big bucks for all that fentanyl and coke?
Has anyone ever heard of the law on supply and demand?
If there is “demand” there will always be a “supply”.
What about the idea of curbing “demand”? Do you think if demand is curbed, the supply will shrink?
Just asking.
Fully agree! Maybe deal with the addiction problem In the USA and their problems. Stay out of Mexico.
Breaking news: The Justice Department confirmed that Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada and Joaquin Guzman Lopez were arrested in El Paso, Texas. One senior official familiar with the arrest said Zambada was taken into custody by the FBI without incident along the U.S. border.
So much for tRump’s plan to send hit squads and subvert México’s sovereignty! 😄 🤣
Go Trump he will destroy Cartels in Mexico Jack your going t get you butt kicked
Keep your doors locked give it time you will be gone for sure stop being so polically correct time for action you fool get your head out of….
I wonder how expats from the States living in Mexico, relishing the fact trump will violate International Law and execute military operations there, would feel if an international military force destroyed major arms dealer compounds and illegal gun depots located in the U.S. since the FBI and the DEA are not allowed to because of lobbyists, the NRA, 2nd Amendment radicals, and that pesky thing called the law?
We have cartels in the U.S. also. We just don’t call them that (maybe because they wear suits and ties). What if this military force took out individuals associated with our cartels? Would expats like goe be salivating then? I think trump and vance might be singing a different tune.
If all the cartels in Mexico went out of commission for any reason, the demand for drugs in the U.S. would not go away. Criminal gangs in other countries would take over trafficking drugs to the U S., the potential profits are too great to pass up. Would Trump be willing to bomb actors in Russia or China? The only way to really dry up demand for drugs in the black market is to legalize it while blitzing an anti-drug campaign and offering free treatment
This is the key point in the whole discussion. I’m weary of US politicians who praise “free markets” out of one side of their mouth, then from the other, refuse to acknowledge that using authoritarian means to prevent trade in a product that has huge demand is futile. I’ve believed all my life that bringing the drugs to the surface in society would be the best way to crash the profits to be gained in selling them – and, beyond that, kill much of their desireability. I’m noticing in my own social world here in California that weed, being cheaply available everywhere now, has started to seem uncool amongst the younger generation. This is a major clue. However let’s be honest: The police and security bureaucracies feeding off the vast prohibition budgets have as bit a stake in keeping things just as they are as the cartels themselves do.
Trump’s family is grounded in the idealogy of a cartel of choice called the ” Ku Klux Klan”. Trump’s dad, Fred Trump was a Klansmen. Do your own research. Doesn’t surprise me that Trump would try taking advantage over a country with an out control military.
A Modest Proposal: Why not a cross-border agreement? Mexico lets the US attack cartels in Mexico. The US lets the Mexican government arrest and transport to Mexico the owners of any of the 7,000 gun shops within a mile of the Mexican border that have illegally sold weapons to Mexicans?
Great point!
Trumpy and his big mouth again!!! What a joke!! All he does is talk and can never do anything. Remember, the Big Beautiful Wall that Mexico was going to pay for?!?? How much money has been wasted on the several hundred miles which American taxpayers have footed?!? Mexico is not going to help build a wall nor let The American military try and wipe out the cartels. What would all the white trash in Appalachia do without fentanyl??? The problem is very complex and potentially the two female Presidents will figure out something the males have failed at miserably?!?!