President Donald Trump said on Monday that he is open to bombing drug cartels in Mexico.
The Trump administration has pressured Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for months to do more to target drug lords funneling narcotics such as fentanyl into the United States, even enacting 25% “emergency” tariffs against the country over the issue in February.
This week, Trump said, “I didn’t say I’m doing it, but I would be proud to” carry out military strikes targeting cartel members in Mexico, similar to the controversial and deadly strikes Washington has authorized on dozens of suspected drug boats coming from Venezuela in the Caribbean and Pacific waters.
“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? It’s OK with me, whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “Look, I looked at Mexico City over the weekend. There’s some big problems over there. If we had to, would we do there what we’ve done to the waterways? You know, there’s almost no drugs coming into our waterways anymore.”
Trump has already signed off on directives authorizing the Pentagon to use military force against cartels, including in Mexico, that have been designated foreign terrorist organizations. The move prompted Sheinbaum in August to say that while she would collaborate with Washington to target drugs, any U.S. military “invasion” in Mexico to eliminate cartel members is “absolutely off the table.”
Trump said Monday that he would “probably” first ask Congress for permission to bomb Mexico.
“I’ll probably go into Congress and say, ‘Hey.’ And you know what, the Democrats or the Republicans would both agree, unless they’re crazy,” the president said. “But we have lost hundreds of thousands of people a year — deaths. And that’s not talking about family destruction. That’s talking about deaths. And much of it comes through Mexico. So let me just put it this way: I am not happy with Mexico.”
Trump’s comments come as Mexico has touted intensified efforts to crack down on drug cartels since he took office in January, with the country announcing a continued security cooperation agreement to combat “transnational organized crime” with the United States in September. Still, significant concerns remain about deadly narcotics flowing into the U.S., as Texas revealed earlier this month that it plans to investigate whether Mexican cartels have attempted to build tunnels under the U.S.-Mexico border to facilitate drug and human smuggling into state-owned land.
On Monday, Trump also mused about authorizing military strikes against Colombia.
“We know exactly how they get their things here, how they get the drugs here, fentanyl, cocaine. Colombia has cocaine factories where they make cocaine. Would I knock out those factories? I would be proud to do it personally. I didn’t say I’m doing it, but I would be proud to do it because we’re going to save millions of lives by doing it,” the president said.
The country has faced intense criticism from the Trump administration over concerns that it is facilitating the flow of drugs into the U.S. In response, Colombian President Gustavo Petro has slammed Washington for targeting suspected drug boats coming from South America with lethal strikes. Petro last week labeled Trump a “barbarian,” days after he ordered his country to stop sharing intelligence with the U.S. due to the dispute.
Mexico was drawn into the strikes debate on Oct. 27, when the U.S. military targeted four vessels in the eastern Pacific Ocean suspected of transporting drugs. At the time, the Pentagon said Mexican authorities assumed responsibility for coordinating the search and rescue of the sole survivor. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later said the Mexican navy’s dayslong search for the survivor was unsuccessful.
Following the strikes off Mexico’s coast, U.S. and Mexican representatives met and reached an understanding that if the Pentagon had information about suspected drug trafficking vessels near Mexico, the Mexican navy would be tasked with intercepting those boats, Sheinbaum said last week after previously saying “we do not agree with these attacks.”
Trump said Monday he has “been speaking to Mexico” about the drug crisis.
HERE ARE THE DETAILS OF THE US STRIKES TARGETING ALLEGED DRUG VESSELS
“They know how I stand. We’re losing hundreds of thousands of people to drugs. So now we’ve stopped the waterways, but we know every route. We know every route. We know the addresses of every drug lord. We know their address, we know their front door. We know everything about every one of them. They’re killing our people. That’s like a war,” he said.
“Would I do [the drug strikes]? I’d be proud to,” the president added.
