Our new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told his former coworkers on Fox & Friends that “all options will be on the table” when it comes to the use of military strikes in Mexico. What could possibly go wrong?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that “all options will be on the table” when asked by former colleagues on the “Fox & Friends” TV show whether the military is now permitted to strike within Mexico.
President Donald Trump designated cartels operating in Mexico as foreign terrorist organizations on Jan. 20 during a slew of executive orders he signed after his inauguration and amid a broader crackdown on immigration across the U.S. southern border. Last week, 1,600 active-duty troops were deployed to the border after Trump declared a national emergency.
While Hegseth said that he didn’t “want to get ahead of the president” and that it is ultimately Trump’s decision, he reiterated some of the language in the executive order, adding that the military is “shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border.”
“If we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border,” Hegseth said, going on to refer to the military’s overall defense of the border and adding “that is something we will do and do robustly.”
However, officials who work for Hegseth’s office had little to offer in the way of details when asked about the comments — a situation that has been common since his arrival at the Pentagon on Monday.
Here’s more from TNR:
With its newfound electoral mandate, Donald Trump’s team is debating on whether to attack or invade Mexico, as the president-elect promised on the campaign trail.
“How much should we invade Mexico?” one senior Trump transition member told Rolling Stone. “That is the question.”
Trump has reportedly been gathering “battle plans” to attack drug cartels in Mexico since early 2023, with or without Mexico’s permission. Now he is president-elect, and even mainstream Republicans are on board with the idea. His nominees for secretary of defense and secretary of state, Pete Hegseth and Senator Marco Rubio, respectively, have spoken favorably of U.S. military action against Mexico, as has his “border czar,” Tom Homan.
One source close to Trump told Rolling Stone about a plan for a “soft” invasion of the country, in which U.S. special forces would assassinate cartel leaders covertly, an idea Trump was in favor of earlier this year. The magazine spoke to six Republicans in all who have privately discussed Mexico with the president-elect and briefed him on different proposals.
We’re not going to have a friend left in the world at this rate. He’s already crashing the stock market with his tariffs. These threats of aggression so he can play tough guy with Mexico are going to end badly for all of us as well.
