Trump is eager to breach Mexico’s sovereignty to attack cartels, officials say — just don’t call it an invasion
A new directive signed last week by President Donald Trump gives the Pentagon authorization to use military force against Latin American drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations, according to administration sources.
A U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone certain details regarding the Trump-signed directive, which was first reported by The New York Times. Other knowledgeable sources, working in or close to this iteration of the Trump White House, say that unless Mexico gives Trump what he wants, this administration is serious about attacking its neighbor to the south. And according to administration officials and others familiar with the Trump administration preparations, it’s not a bluff: This American president wants to violently breach Mexico’s sovereignty — if and when he feels like it. He, after all, effectively campaigned on doing so during his 2024 bid.
Just don’t call any of this a plan for an invasion, U.S. government officials implore.
Speaking about the new directive, a senior administration official says, “It’s not a negotiating tactic. It’s not Art of the Deal. The president has been clear that a strike … is coming unless we see some big, major changes.”
Imagine a timeline where the USA, Mexico, Canada, Europe, and the rest of the world’s democracies that at least try to be diverse, equitable, and inclusionary… were all working together to minimize friction among their liberalized economies and cultures.
We’d be a spacefaring species within a generation or two.
Its too bad we spent the last 50 or so years chasing the dragon of profit and letting it divide us. Profit. Some shit we made the fuck up.
As per Star Trek lore, we’ve got to nuke ourselves to near extinction first :/
I think there is still plenty of pages in the dark chapter we currently find ourselves in to make that prophecy true since the bell roots turned out to be a different timeline
Ngl I watched both episodes of Past Tense on September 1st 2024, if for nothing else then a memorial.
But here we are. This is what’s happening. This is where we live.
Mexico is owned by the cartels. They’re not a free and fair democracy anymore, and should not be included as one.
I’m going to paste here a comment I made from 10 months ago
Ya know I realise this is complete conspiracy theory.
However, I’m still willing to give a 2-5% chance that if Trump gets back into power, within the last 12-18 months of his presidency he’ll declare a special operation into North Mexico to ‘secure the border’, ‘stop the illegal immigrants’ and ‘remove the drug cartels’.
Then he’ll claim it’s too dangerous to hold the election, or not appropriate, or whatever excuse because of the special operation. And then he’ll postpone the election with the approval of the SC as a presidential duty and therefore not illegal.
And I know this is insane but every time I ask myself “would trump attempt something like this?” The answer is always “yes”
Who’s going to stop the American nazis?
A) No one.
B) Canada and a subsequent western coalition.
C) Latin America and a surprise coalition.
D) Some mix of the above.The thing is, Taiwan is probably going to get invaded if Trump invades Mexico.
I’ve been hearing about the impending Chinese invasion of Taiwan since Dick Cheney started chewing on that bone in the 1990s.
We’ve dropped bombs across half of North Africa since we started mainlining “Taiwan will be invaded”. We’ve manufactured five major famines - Haiti, Sudan/Ethiopia, Libya, Afghanistan, and Gaza - since then. We’ve toggled the “bankrupt Cuba through sanctions while we run a torture camp from the naval base on their island” switch at least twice since then. We’ve backed regime changes in Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, El Salvador, plus a couple failed ones in Venezuela and Chile since then. We’ve gerrymandered our own Congress three separate times since then.
I gotta say… maybe it takes one to know one. But it’s not China the Taiwanese seem like they should be worried about. Just ask the folks in South Korea, who are cleaning up after their third near-reversion-to-dictatorship in twenty years, under reactionary presidents we supported. Or Indonesia and the Philippines, which seem unable to get out from beneath our proxies’ jack boots.
Add to that the fact China hasn’t even TRIED to invade Taiwan since the separation in 1949. So it’s clearly a difficult task.
But all of what you’ve said was before Xi came to power, he’s worked hard to knock out all serious competition for leadership in the party ranks to the point he’s able to extend his term indefinitely.
…and I’m not saying he’s a bad leader. But he does seem more intent on this (rather difficult) goal than previous leaders …and it is a difficult goal, largely due to the cliff faces and wide marshy beaches.
Which is why China recently developed large landing barges loosely based off some British WW2 technology (now with fold out bridges on them, to cross the beaches completely):
Should those prove effective when testing occurs later this year, it will greatly expand landing location. So there’s a bit of a technological arms race going on. Add in Ukraine proving the importance of drones in modern warfare and you have a technological landscape that makes previously difficult invasion plans more possible.
All this said, I personally think that China’s claim over Taiwan is somewhat legitimate. Or at least more legitimate than Russian claims over Ukraine, or American claims over Mexico.
Taiwan (which is just 150 kms off China’s coast) was a western backed dictatorship under the right wing KMT authoritarians for 25+ years, even today one of the two main parties in Taiwan is still the “Chinese Nationalist Party” (the same party that ran the dictatorship)… Also Taiwan isn’t even the official name of the country, it’s officially the “Republic Of China”… Which seems like, trolling.
But yeah, I support democracies, and think China should be more democratic… I’d love it if Taiwan could be more democratic (change its name, kick out the KMT)… But yeah, seems more possible than ever that China can invade, which would change the world order drastically as the Western foothold on Taiwan allows the west to monitor/blockade shipping.
The primary means by which the Chinese government has attempted to influence Taiwanese domestic politics has been diplomatic and economic. They’ve expanded their trade relations and increased foreign investments. They’ve relaxed travel restrictions and even subsidized the cost of travel between the island and the mainland.
One of the recent flashpoints in China/Taiwan relations in recent years was in 2019 when the Hong Kong government implemented a program for extraditing Chinese nationals to Taiwan for criminal prosecution. This was in response to a grisly murder and subsequent flight from the law by the murderer. By attempting to repatriate Chan Tong-kai to Taiwan for the crime of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, the Hong Kong government inadvertently set off months of violent protests.
But yeah, seems more possible than ever that China can invade.
If you look at the influential model of the Chinese diplomatic core and economic model, they don’t need to establish a military presence in Taiwan. They just need the Taiwanese public to stop seeing Chinese businessmen and politicians as existential threats to their safety.
That’s already happened across West Africa. And it is an increasingly common sentiment across the South Pacific, the Middle East, and the European South. To quote Dr Lubinda Haabazoka, Director of the University of Zambia Graduate School of Business and former President of the Economics Association of Zambia
Every time China visits we get a hospital, every time Britain visits we get a lecture.
Oh China has all sorts of influence over Taiwan who are their largest trading partner and their traditional gateway to the west. There’s lots of reasons not to invade.
But leaders aren’t always rational.
glances Putin-ward
No kidding.
Nevertheless, the modern Chinese state seems more rational and less belligerent than most.
Yeah, I agree.
More rational than most is not a tough hurdle. The average in state rationality is something like Kazakhstan
I think he can only be stopped from the inside. Idk if that will happen though
Come on, high cholesterol!
Stole this gem from another thread.
Excuse me, but I couldn’t help but notice we haven’t released the Epstein files
Epstein list
Good thing I don’t live in Texas anymore. They’re gonna get the shit terrorized out of them in response. This asymmetric stuff gets nasty and the US won’t be able to identify good hispanic from bad hispanic based on color alone.
What makes you think they’ll even try to?
Anything to avoid releasing the Tacostein files.
Wasn’t this the Plot of one of the Tom Clancy movies where Harrison Ford played Jack Ryan?
Clear and Present Danger
It’s a good flick for sure. It also has Willem Dafoe and Raymond Cruz in it.
I’d back a cartel if they assassinated Trump et al.
I would also back any cartel that could pull this off. Would love to see the documentary after too.
Ah, the gentleperson’s ever-present silver lining when they find themselves living in “interesting times”:
This is going to produce some great documentaries!
…I hope I live long enough to see the end of this shit!
…plus a few years for journalism and research and production on the documentaries using humane working schedules, of course. And some totally understandable production delays and interview re-shoots.
+10000 to that. I’ll even donate to the cause.
Doesn’t Iran already have a bounty on him?
I believe $50M USD
Not trying to defend Trump, but war plans are standard. Militaries and leaders are supposed to think of different scenarios and contingencies. The US drew up plans to invade Canada should there be war with Britain back in the 1920s and 1930s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_color-coded_war_plans?wprov=sfla1
So you just didn’t read the whole thing, or what?
Speaking about the new directive, a senior administration official says, “It’s not a negotiating tactic. It’s not Art of the Deal. The president has been clear that a strike … is coming unless we see some big, major changes.”
Mexico isn’t NATO either so nobody will come to help them beyond material support.
So, it’s the Batman scenario? Where Batman has plans to take down every other hero?
Putin is coaching him, he’s been convinced “strong men annex neighbouring territory” and wants to be like Russia is to Ukraine.
It’s the same thing that got all the Oligarchy in line, it’s all via Putin coaching him.
ok as a naive Canadian can I just ask…What’s the point of saying “Epstein list” over and over?
I know he’s on it, you know he’s on it, everyone knows he’s on it so if/when it does come to light that he is INFACT on it and it’s proven in black and white…then what? he gets removed from office? someone starts an impeachment process that goes no where? cause all the other motions for impeachment have worked out well. Or he and his administration and the rest of the GOP simply ignore it and continue on their fascist path.
I just don’t understand it. Based on what I’ve seen and read nothing would happen.
MAGA has been largely driven by the idea of globalist pedophilic sex trafficking rings. They were literally shooting up a pizza parlor because it supposedly ran child rape in its basement - when the place didn’t even have a basement. They believe there’s a video of Hillary Clinton ripping a child’s face off to get high on “adenochrome.”
And the reality is that there was a high level sex trafficking ring for the wealthy and powerful, that was covered up by various high level interests - but that their “savior” figure who was supposed to expose it was always in on it.
The hope is that MAGA idiots will see this and turn on him. But the reality is they won’t. It’s turned into a religion. Alex Jones seemed like he was going to break back when they first started denying the files exist, but he’s fully back on the Trump train.
It’s a hope that this will finally be the straw that breaks the camels back - that they will realize that their Christ has always been an Antichrist, coming from a misguided belief that these people are capable of seeing reason.
It’s hope that MAGA will turn on him once they see the list, because him not releasing them is actually frustrating quite a few of them who voted with this as their primary issue when trump was using it as a platform.
Never has the world witnessed such a wave of the stupidest people suddenly changing their minds because of a new piece of evidence. Oh, it would be amazing!
My instinct is to say I’m not holding my breath. But in this case, since it’s not just the ordinary people involved but some of the spreaders of propaganda, I can at least imagine a plausible outcome where this one sticks. And by “plausible” I mean in the sense of a meme of Dr Strange holding up one finger towards Jim Carrey who replies “so you’re saying there’s a chance.”
It’s like when Jordan Klepper was interviewing Trump supporters. There was one interview where he was talking to a woman who insisted Trump was innocent of intimidating witnesses, and when he pulled solid logic to show he was guilty, she responded “I don’t care”.
You could’ve said the same thing before you had MAGA people calling trump out on not releasing the files on his own Truth social platform. It’s a sticking point for many of them
I know, it’s been so obvious to me that Epstein was a distraction, and the stuff on top of that was a distraction from the distraction.
Nothing will come of the Epstein list just like nothing came from the Panama papers, and ultimately Trump will die one day, but the damage he’s done to our institutions will stay. Him being a pedophile won’t change any of that.
Basically I put news in 2 categories:
- Actual impactful policy
- Keeping up with the Kardashians
Epstein is category 2 for all I’m concerned. Nothing will happen to Trump. At worst he doesn’t serve a 3rd term, which is fine, but his base isn’t going to just embrace democracy after this.
I thought he said he was the peace president. You know, based on literally nothing
