Donald Trump has declared an aggressive crackdown on drug cartels. Since taking office, the president has made eliminating the flow of drugs into the country a central priority. On Monday, he labeled the cartels “enemies of the United States.” Here’s what he said about the ongoing problem and its impact on multiple countries.
“Drugs coming in by sea are down by 94%,” the president declared during the meeting. Trump and his administration have repeatedly described drug trafficking as one of the country’s most serious challenges, at times referring to the shipments as “ocean drugs.”
To stop the deadly drugs that are poisoning our people, I will deploy the U.S. Navy to impose a full fentanyl blockade on the waters of our region.…The drug cartels are waging war on America, and we will destroy those cartels! pic.twitter.com/A0ZgqJxvH1
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) January 20, 2024
The president and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have come under scrutiny for ordering strikes on multiple ships that reportedly killed about 87 people. Trump has insisted the vessels were carrying drugs, though he has not provided evidence to support the claim.
The repeated strikes on the ships, which reportedly left no survivors, have been labeled a war crime by several legal experts. Despite mounting criticism, the president has said he remains confident in his approach.
“These are a direct military threat to the United States of America,” he said during a Monday press conference. He added that his administration was moving to dismantle the same drug cartels “rapidly.”
“They are being declared enemies of the United States of America,” he said. After claiming his administration had reduced “ocean drugs” by 94%, Trump said it was time to target the remaining cartels on land, which he described as “much easier.” He added that the cartels posed a “direct military threat” to the country.
“They are trying to drug out our country,” the president alleged. He then gave a history lesson, arguing that China once had a “drug problem” that made it vulnerable to being taken over.
Trump later returned to the claim that his administration has rapidly reversed the drug crisis in the United States. He praised the military for what he described as successfully stopping “invasions,” a reference to the controversial airstrikes.
The 79-year-old president called the effort one of the “many victories” of his administration, saying more than 25,000 service members had participated in what he described as a “historic operation.”
He also commended border patrol forces for carrying out 13,000 patrols along the border. “For the past seven months, zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States of America,” he claimed.
🚨 BOOM! TRUMP GOES NUCLEAR ON CARTEL DRUG BOATS 🔥
“These are a DIRECT MILITARY THREAT to America, they’re trying to DRUG OUT our country!”
pic.twitter.com/5syRr9MEoh
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) December 15, 2025
In typical Trump fashion, the president did not miss an opportunity to take a jab at the Biden administration. He labeled the former government an “incompetent administration” while boasting that he had managed to turn things around.
“We took the worst border in the history of our country, and in a period of two months, we turned it into the strongest border in the history of our country,” he added.
