(Photo by Peter Foley for Reuters)
Although President-elect Donald Trump tried to market himself as a “peace candidate” during the 2024 campaign, it seems that he and his foreign policy advisers are dead set on sending at least some members of the American military into Mexico. Rolling Stone reports that Trump and his team are considering a “soft invasion” of Mexico that would use special forces to target drug labs and cartels in Mexico.
This is a step that has never been taken in the past given how much the United States relies upon Mexico for cooperation in terms of national security, but Trump at the moment appears to be ready to pull the trigger on an operation that could spark a major diplomatic crisis with one of America’s biggest trading partners.
“How much should we invade Mexico?” one Trump transition member says the incoming administration is asking. “That is the question.”
Another Trump insider, meanwhile, tells the publication that it’s “unclear how far he’ll go on this one” but then adds that “if things don’t change, the president still believes it’s necessary to take some kind of military action against these killers.”
The idea of launching strikes within Mexico has been dismissed in the past even by many MAGA-friendly Republicans. As conservative Rich Lowry wrote for Politico just last year, “We aren’t going to drone or raid our way to a secure Southern border.”
“The frustrating reality is that there is no alternative to working with the Mexican government, which is going to be protective of its territory and national pride, especially vis-a-vis the giant to its north,” Lowry added.
