By Scott Lemieux
Donald the Dove’s Secretary of Defense shows off the Non-Interventionist Mindset:
It was the first call U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held with Mexico’s top military officials, and it wasn’t going well. Hegseth told the officials that if Mexico didn’t deal with the collusion between the country’s government and drug cartels, the U.S. military was prepared to take unilateral action, according to people briefed on the Jan. 31 call. Mexico’s top brass who were on that call were shocked and angered, feeling he was suggesting U.S. military action inside Mexico, these people said. The Defense Department declined to comment.
Hegseth’s private warning—echoed by other Trump administration officials —now looms over Mexico’s trade talks with President Trump.
Their fear: Demands that Mexico end fentanyl smuggling and migrant trafficking are quietly backed by potential U.S. military action—and not just 25% tariffs that would cripple the country’s economy. Who knows, maybe at some point will dawn on people who claim that Biden could have pushed the “end the Russia/Ukraine war now” button [by giving Putin everything he wants] that Trump giving Putin everything he wants has not in fact ended the war because these terms are not actually acceptable to Ukrainians.