Donald Trump has been going into more detail about the policies he intends to usher into the United States if he wins the 2024 race for president. Among them are plans to deploy "American assassination squads" to kill leaders of drug cartels.
Rolling Stone reported the policy pledge on Tuesday, recalling that it is similar to several other comments Trump has made about bombing Mexico and even waging war.
He has pledged to “make appropriate use of Special Forces, cyber warfare, and other overt and covert actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations," the report said. Trump even sees cartels as akin to ISIS terrorist groups.
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While in the White House, former defense secretary Mark Esper wrote in his 2022 memoir that Trump thought he could bomb the "drug labs" in Mexico, and then claim the action was taken by another country.
"What was once a fringe notion that senior Trump administration officials quickly moved to shut down has now become a mainstream GOP policy proposal, including among influential Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill and conservative think tanks," Rolling Stone reported.
Reuters reported that in 2023 political polls, the idea of going to war with the cartels tested well.
The Rolling Stone report explained that the strategy had been attempted before, but hadn't worked.
A 2023 report revealed Trump told policy advisers during the 2020 campaign to give military options for attacking the Mexican drug cartels. The plan was to be deployed if he won reelection. The ideas included air strikes, drone strikes and U.S. soldiers deployed for a ground invasion, Rolling Stone reported.
Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, who heads the American First Policy Institute, has had his group craft policy papers that would offer a blueprint for how to enact the plan. The report explained that the paper was authored by ex-homeland security official Ken Cuccinelli and is titled: “It’s Time to Wage War on Transnational Drug Cartels.”
