Simon Crerar – NEWSWEEK Jan 8, 2026
President Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that the United States is “going to start now hitting land” in its fight against drug cartels—framing the move as a response to what he claimed is cartel control of Mexico and a U.S. death toll in the “250,000–300,000” range every year.
Why It Matters
Trump’s “hitting land” remark signals a possible escalation from the administration’s maritime-focused counter-narcotics campaign into operations that could potentially touch Mexican territory or cartel-linked infrastructure—an outcome that would raise major questions about sovereignty, congressional authority, and blowback along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Experts have warned potential military action against cartels inside Mexico could be viewed as an act of aggression and trigger dangerous unintended consequences, including displacement and migration pressure.
The comment also lands amid an ongoing debate over how the U.S. should measure—and respond to—the harms of fentanyl and other illicit drugs. Public health data does not support the scale of fatalities Trump cited; preliminary CDC data cited by the Associated Press put U.S. overdose deaths at about 76,516 in the 12-month period ending April 2025 (down nearly 25 percent from the prior 12-month period).
What To Know
In the Hannity interview, Trump said: “We are going to start now hitting land with regard to the cartels. The cartels are running Mexico, it’s very sad to watch, to see what’s happening to that country. They’re killing 250,000–300,000 people in our country every single year. It’s horrible.”
The “land” language is not entirely new in Trump-world. In November Trump said the U.S. would “very soon” begin stopping suspected drug traffickers “by land,” after strikes on alleged drug boats.
In August Trump signed a directive ordering the U.S. military to target drug cartels and other groups designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a move that raised concerns about diplomacy and presidential overreach.
Even the designation strategy could have sweeping ripple effects—potentially including immigration consequences for asylum seekers who were forced to pay cartels, which can be treated as “material support.”
What Happens Next
The immediate question is what Trump’s “hitting land” line means in practice—whether it signals an imminent shift in military posture, an expansion of covert or intelligence-led operations, or intensified coordination pressure on Mexico rather than unilateral action.
What’s clearer is that the administration has already been laying political and operational predicates for escalation.
The directive tied to targeting cartels and FTOs, and the broader argument inside Trump’s orbit for treating cartel-linked trafficking as a national security threat could, if pursued on Mexican soil, ignite a major diplomatic confrontation.
Little known now but when the Rothschild British Empire was at odds with his estranged brother in international capital – Rockefeller’s American hegemony – the “civil war” over oil territories saw the Mexican leadership alternating between “American” and “British” puppets. Another artefact of the Rothschild-Rockefeller schism involved banking and the Glass-Steagall banking act:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFgFp1N6bZk
We should not imagine the world power structure is always monolithic. We see the constructed wars like the “Cold War” and Vietnam War, but hardly ever glimpse the “real” inner workings of international governance; and why should we, this is “none of our business”…
F William Engdahl is pretty good on Mexico –”A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order ” – but doesn’t like or choose to make the Morgan to Rothschild connection.
(You can always tell a “polite, and respectable” author because they always fail to go beyond the Shabbos goy, Morgan, and name Rothschild)
Drug cartels don’t have to worry about losing political power and they’re as mean as a starving bear so Trump could end up in fear of them if he doesn’t start behaving like a statesman instead of just another gangster. No doubt they already possess shoulder-launched missiles so take-off and landing for his plane and helicopter could become risky. Pick your enemies carefully, especially if you plan to strut around the world acting the tough guy, because these people can make a coward like bone spurs Trump jump at every noise. Mobsters like to give each other nicknames to reflect personality and Trump’s reckless enough to end up as Donny The Flinch. That’s not even tough guy-ish.
This is the man who blames other nations for not stomping down on organized crime when it is his own nation directing virtually all criminal trafficking, and is the crime center of the world. Remember the “War on Drugs”? How did that work out? The evidence is that the US agencies and police forces were only used to kill off the competition to the more established US crime networks.
First by making a real effort to clean out the corruption in your own nation, then if the very corrupt US establishment was really serious about ending things like drug and human trafficking, it likely would have much more credibility and sanctions against other nations they blame for everything, would likely be more effective. However, there is absolutely no truth to these Presidential threats and gesturing. While he mouths off, pointing everywhere to other nations, usually as a pretext for wanting to rob something else from them, he ignores the real sources and controls in his own nation, and more and more crimes and evils just happen to become legal and institutionalized.
LOL..
Back when bathhouse Barry was resident, it came to public attention that the CiA was arming the cartels lol..
You just have to chuckle when a mendacious oaf like Drumpf, goes all monkey Bush about the bad men over the border, when it’s common knowledge of course that the yankee spooks have run the South American drug empire since forever..Noriega, Oliver North, the Contra lol Iran debacle…Carlos leder and pablo.. you don’t give away that power to a few wetback hillbillies..
Drumpf himself along with Rothschild and Rockefeller was washing CiA drug money in the Resorts international front back in the eighties.. and of course Sticky Bill Clinton and his Arkansas mafia..
dear dear..Geo-politics are just spook turf wars for the gangster banking cartel…Drumpf’s just doin’ some wet work for the capo’s… sorting out the South American tribute for Caesar…
Donald Trump doesn’t trust Keir Starmer – we now have biggest proof yet
Story by Esther McVey
what even his own people dont trust him
a socialist jew pedo, why would anyone trust him ?