Updated Jan. 9, 2026, 11:48 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON − President Donald Trump said the United States will soon begin targeting drug cartels by land and suggested the operations could take place in Mexico.
“We are going to now start hitting land with regard to the cartels,” Trump said in a Jan. 8 interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “The cartels are running Mexico. It’s very, very sad to watch and see what’s happening to their country.”
Trump has previously threatened military operations by land to take out cartels, but his latest comments mark his most direct signal of an operation in the works. It comes after the U.S. military on Jan. 3, at Trump’s direction, captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and brought him to the United States on drug trafficking charges.
In recent months, the military has attacked at least 35 alleged drug-smuggling boats traversing international waters in the Caribbean, killing at least 115 people − many of them Venezuelans. Trump has said the boats were carrying fentanyl and other illegal narcotics, though Democrats in Congress have pushed for more information on the attacks.
Trump, the day after the operation in Venezuela, told reporters on Air Force One, “Now we’re going to stop them by land, too,” adding that, “You have to do something with Mexico.”
“Mexico has to get their act together because they’re pouring through Mexico and we’re going to have to do something. We’d love Mexico to do it. They’re capable of doing it. But unfortunately the cartels are very strong in Mexico,” the president said.
Since the operation in Venezuela, Trump has suggested the United States will assert a more dominant role international affairs in the Western Hemisphere, coining a new foreign policy, the “Donroe Doctrine,” as he threatens military action in Colombia, predicts the collapse of Cuba and pushes for the U.S. acquisition of Greenland.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, when asked about Trump’s threat to target cartels in her country, said her administration has reached out to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and suggested a meeting is necessary.
“Two or three days ago, Secretary Rubio himself spoke about the good coordination on security matters with Mexico,” she said during a news conference.
The Mexican president highlighted a joint work group on security with the United States and the headway her government has made on dismantling drug laboratories.
Contributing: Lauren Villagran of USA TODAY
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
