President Trump Announces Plan To Combat Drug Cartels

President Trump Announces Plan To Combat Drug Cartels

President Donald Trump announced a plan Thursday to "wage war" on the drug cartels that are flooding America with poison. 

President Trump outlined how he will designate the cartels as foreign terror organizations and use the U.S. military to combat them as necessary.

You can watch his announcement here.

Our Take:

• The record number of drug overdose deaths -- more than 107,000 in 2021 -- requires drastic solutions that Biden is unwilling to take. The drug cartels deserve to be destroyed like ISIS as President Trump said in his Thursday video.
• The Mexican drug cartels function like terrorist groups. They even defeated the Mexican military before in battle. President Trump recognizes the threat they pose to national security.
• Biden does not take the drug crisis seriously. The Border Patrol Union warned that Biden's plan to end Title 42 gives the cartels "complete control."

The Background: 

President Donald Trump laid out several proposals to combat the cartels in his Thursday video. The announcement comes while violence erupted in the Mexico city of Culiacan after Mexican authorities arrested drug cartel leader Ovidio Guzman -- the son of El Chapo.

"Fentanyl, heroin, meth, and other lethal drugs are pouring across our wide open border stealing hundreds of thousands of beautiful American lives," Trump said Thursday. "The drug cartels are waging war on America, and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels.  In this war, Joe Biden has sided against the United States and with the cartels."

President Trump's proposed policies include:

• Deploying all necessary military assets to impose a full naval embargo on the cartels. "We will guarantee that the waters of the Western Hemisphere are not used to traffic illicit drugs to our country."
• Ordering the Department of Defense to use special operations, cyberwarfare, and other methods to "inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations."
• Designating the major drug cartels as foreign terror organizations.
• Severing the drug cartels' access to global financial systems.
• Creating a partnership with neighboring governments in the region to combat the cartels.
  • President Trump noted, "Either we will get the full cooperation of other governments to stop this menace, or we will expose every bribe, every kickback, every payoff, and every bit of corruption that is allowing the cartels to preserve their brutal reign."
• Calling on Congress to make sure drug traffickers receive the death penalty.