In Trump’s government-in-waiting, the only question is how massive the U.S. assault on Mexican drug cartels should be
Within Donald Trump’s government-in-waiting, there is a fresh debate over whether and how thoroughly the president-elect should follow through on his campaign promise to attack or even invade Mexico, as part of the “war” he’s pledged to wage against powerful drug cartels.
“How much should we invade Mexico?” says a senior Trump transition member. “That is the question.”
It is a question that would have seemed batty for the GOP elite to consider before, even during Trump’s first term. But in the four years since, many within the mainstream Republican centers of power have come around to support Trump’s idea to bomb or attack Mexico.
Trump’s Cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense and secretary of state, have publicly supported the idea of potentially unleashing the U.S. military in Mexico. So has the man Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. So has the man Trump selected as his “border czar” to lead his immigration crackdowns. So have various Trump allies in Congress and in the media.
Trump, who has routinely (and falsely) promoted himself as the candidate who would “endless wars,” now wants to lead a new conflict just south of our nation’s border. But at this moment, it is, in the words of one Trump adviser, “unclear how far he’ll go on this one.” This source adds: “If things don’t change, the president still believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers.”
Another source close to Trump describes to Rolling Stone what they call a “soft invasion” of Mexico, in which American special forces — not a large theater deployment — would be sent covertly to assassinate cartel leaders. Indeed, this is a preliminary plan that Trump himself warmed to in private conversations this year.
For this story, Rolling Stone spoke with six Republicans who have each talked to the twice-impeached former and now future president about this topic; some of these sources have briefed Trump on these policy ideas in recent weeks. These proposals — of varying degrees of violent severity — include drone strikes or airstrikes on cartel infrastructure or drug labs; sending in military trainers and “advisers” to Mexico; deploying kill teams on Mexican soil; waging cyberwarfare against drug lords and their networks; and having American special forces conduct a series of raids and abductions of notorious cartel figures.
In some of these private conversations, including during this presidential transition period, Trump has told confidants and some GOP lawmakers that he plans to tell the Mexican government they need to stem the flow of fentanyl to America — somehow, in a span of several months — or else he’ll send in the U.S. military.
As Rolling Stone has reported, since at least last year, Trump has solicited specific “battle plans” and different military options for “attacking Mexico.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), whom Trump chose to serve as secretary of state, has endorsed the idea of sending U.S. troops to Mexico to combat drug cartels, under the conditions that “there is cooperation from the Mexican government,” and that such operations are done “in coordination with the armed forces and the Mexican police force.”
Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth, whom Trump chose to lead the Pentagon, said last year that it could be in the national interest to deploy the military against Mexican drug cartels, which he referred to as “terrorist-like organizations poisoning our population.”
“If it takes military action, that’s what it may take, eventually,” said Hegseth. “Obviously, you’re gonna have to be smart about it. Obviously, the precision strikes. But if you put the fear in the minds of the drug lords, at least as a start, [and] they can’t operate in the open with impunity, [it] changes the way they operate. You combine that with actual border security … now you’re cooking with gas and you’ve got a chance.”
Trump’s pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), last year co-introduced legislation to create an Authorization for Use of Military Force to target Mexican drug cartels, asserting it “would give the president sophisticated military cyber, intelligence, and surveillance resources to disrupt cartel operations that are endangering Americans.”
Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan, recently pledged that Trump would use the military against drug cartels in Mexico. “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,” he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s top allies on Capitol Hill, similarly introduced legislation last year to “designate Mexican cartels and other transnational criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations.” He did so after promising that America would “unleash the fury and might of the U.S.” against drug cartels in Mexico, and that Congress would “give the military the authority to go after these organizations wherever they exist.”
Trump’s homeland security pick, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R), sent National Guard soldiers down to the southern border in Texas this year, claiming it was necessary “because the border is a warzone.”
“The United States of America is in a time of invasion — the invasion is coming over the southern border,” she said. “The 50 states have a common enemy — that enemy is the Mexican drug cartels that are waging war against our nation. And the cartels are perpetrating violence in each of our states, even here in South Dakota.”
