Trump asks advisers for ‘military options’ against Mexican cartels: Report

Former US President Donald Trump has asked his advisers to devise war plans to confront the Mexican cartels as he aims to return to the White House in 2024, according to a new report. 

RT on Saturday cited a US report stating that Trump was asking his military advisers to sketch out some “battle plans” to eradicate the drug cartels operating in neighboring Mexico.

During his tenure as the President of the United States, Trump threatened terrorism designations for drug gangs operating across the border, but he later opted for the so-called Trump wall which he touted as the “big, beautiful wall” as the “Rolls-Royce” of barriers, which the smugglers later breached more than 3,000 times.

For his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has sought a “range of military options” from his advisers, including “strikes that are not sanctioned by Mexico’s government,” the report said, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

“‘Attacking Mexico,’ or whatever you’d like to call it, is something that President Trump has said he wants ‘battle plans’ drawn for,” says one of the sources. “He’s complained about missed opportunities of his first term, and there are a lot of people around him who want fewer missed opportunities in a second Trump presidency.”

One of the battle plans submitted to Trump by his advisers recommends nothing short of an all-out military attack against Mexico.

“The goal is to crush cartel networks with full military force in as rapid a fashion as possible. This means expanding the role beyond Special Forces, targeted strikes, and intelligence operations to include elements of the Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard,” says one chapter of the plan labeled, “Tier Four: Victory Phase.”

His advisers, however, have also warned Trump about the risks of unilateral military offensives and troop deployments on a sovereign country, the sources say.

In the meantime, a range of GOP lawmakers and figures are proposing legislation aimed at unleashing the US military on Mexico, suggesting that if a Republican wins in 2024, the new president will have ample support — and even possibly face party pressure — for waging war against its southern neighbor.

Republican congressmen Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) announced legislation to authorize the use of military force against fentanyl trafficking cartels in Mexico. The move garnered support from Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr, who penned an approving op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. Pro-Trump House members like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) have echoed these ideas, as well.

In the Senate, Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) announced their own legislation, which would “give the military the authority to go after these organizations wherever they exist,” prompting Mexico’s president Lopez Obrador to brand the legislation as “irresponsible.”

Lopez Obrador, who has denounced the Republican-led push for US military intervention against the drug cartels operating in his country, said such a move by the US would be “an offense to the people of Mexico.”

Mexican president rejects US military intervention to fight cartels

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has dismissed calls from certain US lawmakers advocating military action against drug cartels in the Latin American country. 

The row started after four Americans, two of whom were killed, were kidnapped last month by a drug gang in Matamoros, a city in the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

“We really regret that this happens in our country,” he said. The US government has every right to be upset by the violence.

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