Last week’s U.S. military strike on a drug boat allegedly tied to Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua cartel was no routine operation. It marked a sharp escalation by President Donald Trump in his war on the cartels — a fight he says is about protecting Americans from deadly drugs and chaos spilling over the border.
The strike rattled nerves in Mexico City.
“She’s very scared,” Trump said of President Claudia Sheinbaum during a one-hour sit-down with the Daily Caller. “I’ve offered to send in the military, and she doesn’t want us to do that.”
Scared of what, exactly? The cartels or him? Trump probably believes Sheinbaum fears the unthinkable — a unilateral U.S. strike on cartel targets inside Mexico. He knows that would be a direct slap at Mexican sovereignty and could torch the U.S.-Mexico relationship overnight. But is it a gamble he is willing to take given the consequences?
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