{"id":321505,"date":"2026-01-12T07:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T07:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=321505"},"modified":"2026-01-13T08:21:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T08:21:35","slug":"trump-says-the-us-will-start-hitting-land-targeting-cartels-running-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=321505","title":{"rendered":"Trump Says the US Will Start \u2018Hitting Land\u2019, Targeting Cartels \u2018Running Mexico\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Simon Crerar \u2013 NEWSWEEK Jan 8, 2026<\/strong><\/h1>\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday night that the United States is \u201cgoing to start now hitting land\u201d in its fight against drug cartels<\/a>\u2014framing the move as a response to what he claimed is cartel control of Mexico and a U.S. death toll in the \u201c250,000\u2013300,000\u201d range every year.<\/p>\n

Why It Matters<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Trump\u2019s \u201chitting land\u201d remark signals a possible escalation from the administration\u2019s maritime-focused counter-narcotics campaign into operations that could potentially touch Mexican territory or cartel-linked infrastructure\u2014an outcome that would raise major questions about sovereignty, congressional authority, and blowback along the U.S.-Mexico border.<\/p>\n

Experts have warned potential military action against cartels inside Mexico could be viewed as an act of aggression and trigger dangerous unintended consequences<\/a>, including displacement and migration pressure.<\/p>\n

The comment also lands amid an ongoing debate over how the U.S. should measure\u2014and respond to\u2014the 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).<\/p>\n

What To Know<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the Hannity interview, Trump said: \u201cWe 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\u2019re killing 250,000\u2013300,000 people in our country every single year. It\u2019s horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cland\u201d language is not entirely new in Trump-world. In November Trump said the U.S. would \u201cvery soon\u201d begin stopping suspected drug traffickers \u201cby land,\u201d after strikes on alleged drug boats.<\/p>\n

In August Trump signed a directive ordering the U.S. military to target drug cartels<\/a> and other groups designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, a move that raised concerns about diplomacy and presidential overreach.<\/p>\n

Even the designation strategy could have sweeping ripple effects<\/a>\u2014potentially including immigration consequences for asylum seekers who were forced to pay cartels, which can be treated as \u201cmaterial support.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Happens Next<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The immediate question is what Trump\u2019s \u201chitting land\u201d line means in practice\u2014whether 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.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clearer is that the administration has already been laying political and operational predicates for escalation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The directive tied to targeting cartels and FTOs, and the broader argument inside Trump\u2019s orbit for treating cartel-linked trafficking as a national security threat could, if pursued on Mexican soil, ignite a major diplomatic confrontation.<\/p>\n

Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump signals he\u2019s ready to start targeting the cartels operating out of Mexico <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321505"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321534,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321505\/revisions\/321534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}