Cartel combat: President Trump reportedly considering troop deployment in another country

President Donald Trump could soon send U.S. troops and intelligence officers into Mexico as part of the spiraling effort to crack down on drug cartels.

NBC News reports that the Trump administration is in the process of formulating plans to send Americans into its southern neighbor. Two U.S. officials and two former U.S. officials are cited in the report released on Monday.

The report explains: “The early stages of training for the potential mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico, has already begun.”

In recent months the Trump administration has become increasingly proactive with military strikes in Southern and Central America. In response to questions about the possibility of troop involvement in Mexico, the White House said: “The Trump administration is committed to utilizing an all-of-government approach to address the threats cartels pose to American citizens.”

It comes shortly after Trump approved a series of attacks on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. Multiple people have been killed in the U.S. military strikes, with Members of Congress raising questions about the risk of escalation to land-based operations.

Back in August The New York Times reported that Trump had secretly signed a directive authorizing the use of military force on foreign soil. The report linked it to suggestions that Trump was planning to crack down on drug trafficking gangs with military activity in Mexico. In response, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum insisted that she would not allow any incursion by the U.S.

“The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military,” Sheinbaum said. “We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out.”

Even if the Trump administration does send American troops into Mexico, the prospect of a full military invasion remains incredibly unlikely. But without greater transparency it is difficult to know whether or not the strikes are justified.

In recent a social media post, Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made clear that the military strikes on alleged drug traffickers were just the state of U.S. intervention: “The Western Hemisphere is no longer a safe haven for narco-terrorists bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans. The Department of War will continue to hunt them down and eliminate them wherever they operate.”

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