By taking on the cartels, Trump is reasserting American authority

The reporting process on Donald Trump’s war on the cartels for my latest cover story for The Spectator, published here today, mostly focused on the administration’s theory of the case: what they intend to do about the challenge of the drug running, human trafficking and terrorist activity by the narco syndicates to America’s south and why they believe a major escalation is necessary. In the intervening time between filing a piece and going to press, the theoretical became very real with the fiery destruction of a boat carrying drugs in international waters, allegedly steered by 11 now-dead members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua cartel. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked about the shocking (to those who haven’t been paying attention) military strike, made clear that the rules of engagement have changed, and they are not going back to the old pattern of interdiction and trial. 

“The President has been very clear that he’s going to use the full power of America and the full might of the United States to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they’re operating from and no matter how long they’ve been able to act with impunity,” Rubio told journalists after traveling back from meetings in Mexico City. “Those days are over.” He added:

I think as long as those vessels are in the region and as long as the President’s in the White House, he’s made very clear he’s not going to allow the United States to continue to be flooded with cocaine and fentanyl and other drugs coming from different places – this one is from Venezuela, which is a common route. But by the way, some of it ends up in Europe. A lot of it ends up in Puerto Rico and then on into the United States mainland. So no one should be surprised.  That’s why they’re there on a counter-drug mission, and they’re going to continue to operate. As far as specifics and future operations, I have to refer you to the Pentagon on that. This is a DoD operation…

The President was very clear, and that is we destroyed a drug boat that left Venezuela operated by a designated narcoterrorist organization, which is what these are, and he’s been clear that the days of acting with impunity and having an engine shot down or a couple drugs grabbed off a boat, the – those days are over.  Now it is we are going to wage combat against drug cartels that are flooding American streets and killing Americans.

The election-year depictions of Trump as a dovish isolationist who adopts a Lindberghian attitude toward America’s role in the world has never been accurate, and it has consistently been proven wrong not just in his first term but even more so in his second. The President’s attitude toward Canada, Greenland and the like have been dismissed as foolish talk, but the truth is that he is presiding over a reassertion of American authority over the Western Hemisphere that is long overdue. The war footing this administration is adopting now toward the cartels is still in its early days, but the die is cast – and there is no going back.