Trump suggests U.S. military will hit cartels in Mexico on land

“We’ve knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water. And we are going to start now hitting land, with regard to the cartels,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview aired Thursday night.

“The cartels are running Mexico, it’s very sad to watch and see what’s happened to that country,” Trump said.

Trump’s comment comes less than a week after U.S. forces struck Venezuela and captured its authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores.

The Venezuelan government has said more than 100 people were killed in the military operation, which came after a monthslong pressure campaign against Maduro.

The Trump administration has carried out 35 known strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, killing 115 individuals, according to The New York Times.

A White House spokeswoman, when asked by CNBC about Trump’s comment on Fox News, said, in an email, “The administration is reasserting and enforcing the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, control migration, and stop drug trafficking.”

“The President has many options at his disposal to continue to protect our homeland from illicit narcotics that kill tens of thousands of Americans every year,” the spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said.

Trump previously floated the idea of executing attacks on Mexico.

“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? OK with me, whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office in November when asked if he would consider military action across the southern border.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pushed back on Trump after that, saying there would be no U.S. military action in Mexico without her permission.

This week, Sheinbaum condemned the U.S. capture of Maduro and reaffirmed her country’s sovereignty.

“It is necessary to reaffirm that in Mexico the people rule, and that we are a free and sovereign country— cooperation, yes; subordination and intervention, no,” Sheinbaum said, according to Reuters.

The Trump administration over the past week has also threatened military action in Cuba, Colombia, and Greenland, prompting backlash even from within the ranks of congressional Republicans.

On Thursday, the Senate passed the first phase of a measure to block Trump from further military action in Venezuela.

Five Senate Republicans voted in favor of the measure, known as a War Powers Resolution, indicating it has enough bipartisan support to clear a final vote.

One of those Republicans, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said that she supported Trump’s removal of Maduro. But she also said that further action would require congressional approval.

“When the president raises the issue, as he has with not only Venezuela, but Greenland, of military force being used, then it does implicate the War Powers Act and Congress’s constitutional role,” Collins said.

Correction: Cilia Flores is Nicolás Maduro’s wife. An earlier version misspelled her name.