President Donald Trump signaled in his inauguration speech on Monday that he was preparing for confrontations in the Western Hemisphere by vowing to label Mexican cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “take back” the Panama Canal.
Trump said in the speech that he would be deploying the military to the southern border with Mexico to “repel the disastrous invasion of our country” and that he would be signing an executive order to designate “the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”
According to Fox News, the designations will apply to Mexican cartels and two gangs: MS-13 and Tren de Aragua. The action will designate the groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT).
The designations amount to severe sanctions that seize any assets the targets may have in the US and bar them from entering the country. The designations also open up anyone for criminal prosecution who provides “material support” to the groups, meaning anyone forced to pay protection money to the cartels or gangs could be potentially targeted.
Terror designations could be a first step toward military action against Mexican cartels, an idea favored by many Republicans and people close to Trump despite the obvious risks.
Mike Waltz, who became Trump’s national security advisor on Monday, sponsored a bill when he was in the House that would have to authorized the use of force against cartels and other groups “responsible for trafficking fentanyl or a fentanyl-related substance into the United States or carrying out other related activities that cause regional destabilization in the Western Hemisphere.”
Turning to the Panama Canal in his inaugural address, Trump said he wanted to retake it under the pretext that it’s currently being controlled by China, an accusation strongly denied by Panama’s government, which runs the waterway under its Panama Canal Authority.
The president also accused Panama of violating the treaty under which the US handed over control of the canal in 1999. “The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. And that includes the United States Navy,” Trump said.
“And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back,” he added.
Trump also said in the address that he aims to be a “peacemaker” and pointed to his involvement in clinching the Gaza ceasefire deal. “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier,” he said. “I’m pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families.”
If Trump tries to take the canal by force he will put the nation into a recession as the Canal gets knocked out service for several months. Not to mention the troops that will die in combat. Not that he cares.
If Trump has any success expelling most everyone who builds our houses, cleans up our disasters and grows our food we'll have a recession that way too. Interesting times we have here.
Putting more Americans to work wil cause a recession? That is illogical.
Trump wants invaders removed, you do not.
The current US unemployment rate is 4.1% — below the 5% generally considered “full employment” by economists. The Americans who aren’t “at work” are either temporarily between jobs or not interested in having jobs. They’re not all going to start building houses and mowing lawns and picking tomatoes just because you and Trump want to Make America East Germany Again.
The market wage will rise, and tomatoes will be grown in Latin America.
So supermarket tomatoes will become even shittier? And you think this is a good thing?
If housing prices rise ever more, we’ll have reforms to reduce the other costs behind housing.
Why not have those reforms AND stop using the desire to manipulate the labor market as the excuse for maintaining the immigration police state?
Like what?
Regulations. Look up the high cost of Canadian housing. They’re attempting to reduce prices there.
Similar costs are in education and healthcare it seems. Too much dead weight in both economies.
No having a lack workers will. You assume, incorrectly, that Americans will just jump at those low paying jobs. They will not.
They've jumped the gun. Robotics are coming to save the day, but they're still several years off.
I do physical work (landscaping) for about 10x what an undocumented farmworker makes per hour. Without those workers, be prepared to multiply what you pay for food several times, or don't eat. That's supply and demand for you.
How short sighted, what if Red China shuts it down?
How would they do that? Panama owns the canal and makes money by operating. It is not owned or operated by Red China. Just because the convicted felon president says something does not make it the true.
That's about as likely as Taiwan shutting it down.
China invested in a shipping facility in Peru (a port), not one (a canal) Panama. That's almost certainly what the orangutan is confusing. Biden/Blinken was upset about that one too, but had never offered to help improve their trade so tough cookies.
Since when do you care?
Well my 401 is invested in stocks, that why I care.
Then end the wars. The best way to improve the economy is to cut defence spending to $50b. Return to President Coolidge!
Hi Tim. What side of the political spectrum are you on?…
If the Gasbag is serious about taking the Panama Canal, and taking Greenland, he will not be a peacemaker.
Might make an interesting movie… ;-/
Trump is a "Gasbag Peacemaker?" I do like the sound of "Gasbag Peacemaker." A new name for the next ICBM?
Desperate acts of a declining empire.
"Taking" the Panama Canal might actually be more doable than it seems. Unlike lands like Gaza, or Ukraine, or the Donbas, nobody lives in a canal. Instead you maintain it and charge passing vessels a fee. Trump is more interested in controlling the canal than collecting tolls, so if the US takes over maintenance while making sure Panama still gets paid their tolls, the Panamanians may see it as "a really good deal."
As for Greenland, Trump seems mostly interested in the minerals in the parts of Greenland where nobody lives (the entire population is less than 60,000). If he lays claim to the mineral rights of the wastelands, I doubt many people will travel there to fight him over it.
No one else has the courage or integrity to fight the cartels. Those cartels are partners with our corrupt establishment. Notice that the commenters here will not mention the actual story.
Trump is definitely an improvement so far. Whether or not his interventions will be good remains to be seen, but it at least makes sense what he says, much better than war over Taiwan, Ukraine, etc.
How did you miss the simple fact that Rump was BORN into our corrupt ruling establishment??!!??
Oye vey!
;-/
Is that "War on Drugs" number 35.0 trillion?
I could benefit from some good weed and some cash!….
;-/
Not funny…Sorry…
Inhale!….. Hold it…
Trump's taking close-by small steps…! Greenland's too far…!
He doesn’t really need to invade them. He can just negotiate for control while using force as a threat.
The lying machine is overhauled, lubicated, runs cool, and is ready for service…!
You were unable to cite any lies. You made the claim, you did not support it.
Read the article… It came out of his mouth…!
It certainly did !
Which leads me to wonder – do we reset the President Trump Blatant Lie Count for his second ("forever") term, or do we resume the count at ~30,573 (according to WaPo) where he left off ?
You mean the Trump Fact Check…! It'd be continued…! But I suggest reset to see if he can break his previous record…!
Is it just me who feels like the next 4 years just got unbearably long all of sudden?
Misery loves company NA…
;-/
Not all of a sudden. I was prepared for it no matter who won.
Can you imagine the word salad nonsense we’d be served otherwise?
I think you may enjoy this picture and laugh: https://x.com/MoonofA/status/1882455100557566337?t=O71fVpVgliD9jA7kCfDIfg&s=19
Yeah, I read that piece.
Blaming Mexican cartels for American's lust for drugs. Precious.
See my post below!
;-}
Alas the drugs problem is much, much too complicated to point to a single cause on either the supply or consumer side. In any case if this is actually a path to 'military action' against drug cartels I fail to see any other outcome than disaster and tragedy, not photogenic at all, and a steep acceleration of the drug problem worsening, because the underlying problems that are not being addressed here are likely to only grow worse.
I would really, really, really like to be proven wrong, because man, the situation is fucken depressing enough as is already.
”You can’t always get what you want!… But if you try sometime! You get what you need!!!”
HE WILL GET MORE THAN HE WANTED AND EXPECTS.
Sooner or later the chickens will come home to roost.
"We gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back."
Oh, America & Trump, such dependable and honorable business you conduct.
By all the gods above, below, and in-between . . .
https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/01/21/1810255/us-to-exit-who
The United States will withdraw from the World Health Organization, according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, who cited WHO's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic and demands for "unfairly onerous payments" from Washington.
The order — which takes a year to go into effect — halts U.S. funding to WHO and recalls American personnel working with the organization. It also revokes a January 2021 letter that had kept the U.S. in WHO after an earlier withdrawal attempt. The White House ordered officials to find new partners to take over WHO-led activities and directed a review of the 2024 U.S. Global Health Security Strategy.
All the multilateral agreements he broke last time he was president and he learned nothing. He is in hurry to beat Biden and dig a deeper hole than Biden did, HE IS in a hurry to start WW III.
So we see Trump taking America out of a forefront role in yet another international cooperation. Fine, let Europe, Africa, Asia, S. America & Pacific take the lead.
That said, I will personally delight in seeing the WHO, the US CDC, and hopefully eventually Canadian and UK ministries of health start taking proper blame for f**king up the Panickdemic and for lying about its origin and severity.
The most unfortunate part of the USA leaving the WHO is that it gives America no leverage to push for a global ban on gain-of-function research. Obama's domestic ban only encouraged a Certain Recently Pardoned Individual to outsource to a s**tball lab in China that documents reveal even the British knew was a "Wild West" virology institute with lax protocols and operating with pathogens above its containment capabilities.
“push for a global ban on gain-of-function research”
That’s a waste of time to even pretend to pursue, that’s grad student level work now and easily funded by some of the more loony trust fund brats. If anyone with enough money and a minimum of organizational ability decides the planet would be better off without a few billion people it’s certainly possible to make that happen. Even if the first couple of attempts fail it’s only going to get cheaper and easier and more impossible to trace.
CRISPR tech helps in those regards…
China was monitoring where fentanyl was being shipped and put controls in until…the sanctions
We have a new dictator, he believes he is omnipotent.
He could not even make a decent inaugural appearance.
He looks like he hired Boris Johnson's Figaro.
And Melania looked like she copied one of Queen Elisabeth's hats. What a show.
Sign of inferiorarity…! Melania was hiding Inside her Hat…!
She stole that hat from the Hamburglar.
He likes more wars now that he has to face no other election ever again.
He's probably invested in MIC stocks now.
Not to forget the control over drilling for more oil. Insider knowledge helps a lot to invest in the right industry, he will move Musk to be the #2 richest man on earth.
Insanity makes perfect sense to me in this Universe 25… https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57349e29b2446d6d13822de7927b741d4c06c1174fcc135e50a9cdd9ceeb9c54.jpg
Let's see now, there were 50-some hostages in the Iranian hostage crisis back in the Carter years. And there were 250-some hostages taken by Hamas back in 2023. And best of all, 1,100-some hostages taken by Chechens in Russia's Beslan school crisis back in 2004.
Now don't let's get all techie and everything about precise numbers, let's just deal with these rough approximations as we foresee the Mother of All Hostage Crises.
There are some 700,000 U.S. expats in Mexico. Let's say the cartels manage to take just 1% of them hostage. That's 7,000-some possible hostages. I mean, unless the Pentagon can do a better job of an emergency evacuation of U.S. expats than it did in evacuating refugees from Kabul in 2021…. or from Saigon in 1975.
And most of those folks will NOT be happy to be forced to abandon their homes and lives in Mexico just because of Rump's inadequacy complex.
The cartels are supplying a market. If the cartels are defeated, others will continue to provide product for that market.
The USA is responsible for the Failed War On Drugs that's been going on for decades and will go on for decades to come. It made Latin America a war zone and cheap labor zone. US Companies outsource jobs there to mistreat workers with unsafe working conditions, pay them poverty wages and have no environmental rules nor regulations.
Trump is an impulsive and vindictive creature, not good characteristics of a president.
Does Trump ever think before he jumps?