During a Fox News interview, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that future military strikes against Mexican cartels are “on the table.”
Mexican cartels have begun realizing that their funding sources are drying up thanks to President Donald Trump. With a closed U.S.-Mexico border, it will be much more difficult for the cartels to smuggle illegal aliens into the country — and thus they cannot take payment from these people before the journey, or force them to continue paying them after entering the United States. They will also lose revenue from drug smuggling and sex trafficking, two things that the Trump administration has vowed to put an end to.
It appears that the cartels are starting to get desperate, as several cartel members who were trying to smuggle illegal aliens into the U.S. fired shots over the border at Border Patrol officers on January 27.
VIDEO: Earlier today, @TxDPS responded to assist the US Border Patrol after agents received gunfire from cartel members in Mexico while patrolling in Fronton, Starr County. DPS Drone Operators captured the gunmen fleeing Mexico due to military presence, & seeking refuge on an… pic.twitter.com/oPf5l7wltO
— Chris Olivarez (@LtChrisOlivarez) January 28, 2025
While discussing that incident in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends,” Hegseth was asked by co-host Brian Kilmeade whether the Trump administration plans to go on the offense against Mexican cartels.
“If we find that they continue to fire at Border Control and they continue to put fentanyl into our country, as a secretary of defense, are you permitted now to go after them in Mexico or where they are?” Kilmeade asked.
Hegseth slightly couched his response by pointing out that these decisions are ultimately up to Trump, which means that making a definitive statement could take away from Trump’s leverage on the situation or force his hand.
“Brian, I don’t want to get ahead of the president and I won’t,” Hegseth replied. “That’s ultimately going to be his decision. But let me be clear. All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border.”
“We’re finally securing our border,” he continued. “We’ve been securing other people’s border for a very long time. The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border. That is something we will do and do robustly. So we’re already doing it. Should there be other options necessary to prevent the cartels from continuing to pour people gangs and drugs and violence into our country — we will take that on. So the president will make that call. I’ll work with him in that decision making process. Ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the American people.”
