Military strikes against the Mexican cartels are “on the table,” according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
During an interview with Fox on Friday, Hegseth was grilled about strategies to combat the Mexican cartels. In a recent incident since Trump took office, cartel members exchanged fire with border patrol agents.
“If we find that they continue to fire at Border Control and they continue to put fentanyl into our country, as a secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or where they are?” asked host Brian Kilmeade.
Hegseth responded by saying he didn’t “want to get ahead of the president and I won’t. That’s ultimately going to be his decision.”
“But let me be clear,” he continued. “All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border.
“We’re finally securing our border. We’ve been securing other people’s border for a very long time. The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border.”
On his first day back in office, President Trump signed an executive order designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
“The Cartels have engaged in a campaign of violence and terror throughout the Western Hemisphere that has not only destabilized countries with significant importance for our national interests but also flooded the United States with deadly drugs, violent criminals, and vicious gangs,” the order states.
“The Cartels functionally control, through a campaign of assassination, terror, rape, and brute force nearly all illegal traffic across the southern border of the United States. In certain portions of Mexico, they function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society.”
By designating the cartels as terrorist organizations, President Trump has granted special powers to law enforcement and the government for dealing with them.
