The rules of the game have changed in terms of the United States’ war on drugs.
Early on in Trump’s administration, he classified cartels and other drug organizations as terrorists. I believe he did this so he could start to use the military to engage these organizations.
My beliefs were confirmed when Trump started to order military strikes against these organizations, and it has now happened repeatedly, to mixed reviews.
As soon as Trump took office, one of his first executive orders was to make a declaration against cartels.
The order, in part, stated, “This order creates a process by which certain international cartels (the Cartels) and other organizations will be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, consistent with section 219 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1189), or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, consistent with IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702) and Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001 (Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism), as amended.”
Trump also wanted to use this order to activate the Alien Enemies Act to deport any illegal arrested who could be linked to these groups.
As we noted, the rules were dramatically changing.
Last week, Donald Trump made another proclamation that hinted that he was not going to back down against the complaints of the use of military force against these cartels.
The administration announced, "Although friendly foreign nations have made significant efforts to combat these organizations, suffering significant losses of life, these groups are now transnational and conduct ongoing attacks throughout the Western Hemisphere as organized cartels.
"Therefore, the President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States."
There has been considerable pushback in Congress against Trump taking this route, even by some Republicans, who are more or less accusing Trump of summary executions rather than allowing these criminals to have due process in a court of law.
Just one day after that announcement by Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced that the military had conducted yet another strike against the cartels.
He stated, "The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics—headed to America to poison our people.”
Trump also touted the strike on Truth Social, noting that there were enough drugs on the boat to kill between “25 to 50 THOUSAND PEOPLE.”
That, to my knowledge, is the fourth strike that has been conducted against these narco-terrorist organizations, with the death toll now up to 21 people in all. This is fine as long as the GOP maintains control of Congress, but my guess is that if the Dems get control, they will add this to the list of reasons they want to impeach Trump.