White House Now Pushing Mexico to Do More About Drug Cartels

Summary

White House presses Mexico to do more against powerful cartels blamed for fueling America’s fentanyl epidemic and mass deaths.
Administration weighing aggressive options — sanctions, covert missions, even military strikes — while Mexico rejects foreign boots on its soil.
Cooperation shows wins (arrests, seizures, intelligence-sharing) but mistrust and sovereignty concerns risk undermining joint efforts.

WASHINGTON — In a stark reminder of the volatile ties between the United States and its southern neighbor, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated the Trump administration’s firm stance on cross-border drug trafficking, saying the U.S. is “continually pushing Mexico to do more to tackle the drug trafficking and the drug cartels within their country.”

The comments came during a heated exchange at the daily briefing, triggered by the brazen assassination of a Mexican mayor during national holiday celebrations, an incident that has amplified calls for tougher bilateral action against the powerful syndicates fueling America’s fentanyl crisis.

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The briefing, which largely focused on the ongoing government shutdown now entering its 35th day, veered into foreign policy when independent journalist Julio Rosas raised the killing of Carlos Monzón, a local mayor in Guerrero state, gunned down amid Día de Muertos festivities over the weekend.

Rosas pressed Leavitt on whether President Trump was satisfied with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s handling of cartel threats, noting her recent rejection of any foreign military intervention on Mexican soil.

“I can’t speak for her and what she’s doing internally in her country,” Leavitt replied. “I can speak for the president in saying we are continually pushing Mexico to do more… and we are working with them in any way that we can.”

Why This Development is Huge

Leavitt’s remarks underscore a deepening frustration in Washington, where officials have long viewed Mexican cartels — particularly the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation groups — as the primary engines behind the influx of fentanyl that has claimed over 100,000 American lives annually.

The administration has already taken aggressive steps domestically, including designating several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations earlier this year, a move that unlocks broader tools like sanctions and potential military options.

“Just as promised, President Trump has aggressively taken on drug cartels by declaring them as foreign terrorist organizations and even blowing up narco-terrorists who have tried to poison the American people with fentanyl and other illegal narcotics,” Leavitt added, referencing recent U.S. strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels off Venezuela.

But the push for Mexican buy-in has hit roadblocks. Sheinbaum, who took office in October 2024, has pledged increased cooperation, including surging 10,000 National Guard troops to the U.S. border and extraditing 29 high-value cartel figures to American custody for trial.

Yet her administration has drawn a hard line against U.S. boots on the ground, a position echoed in February when she warned that “Mexico will never tolerate an invasion of its national sovereignty by the United States.”

That statement came in response to Trump’s early-term executive order labeling cartels as terrorists, which sparked speculation about drone strikes or special operations — ideas that harken back to Trump’s first term, when then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper recalled the president floating missile attacks on Mexican drug labs.

Recent reports suggest the pressure may be building toward something more concrete. NBC News detailed on Sunday that the White House is advancing plans for a covert mission involving U.S. troops and intelligence officers on Mexican soil to hit cartel labs and leaders directly — a departure from past administrations’ reliance on CIA and law enforcement support for local forces.

“The Trump administration is committed to utilizing an all-of-government approach to address the threats cartels pose to American citizens,” a senior official told the network, though no deployment timeline was given.

U.S. Begins Preparations

The New York Times reported in August that Trump had already directed the Pentagon to prepare military options against Latin American cartels, including potential airstrikes, prompting Sheinbaum to dismiss it outright as an “invasion” that’s “off the table.”

These tensions aren’t new, but they’ve intensified under Trump 2.0. In May, the president publicly confirmed he’d asked Sheinbaum to allow U.S. troops into Mexico to combat the cartels, calling them “horrible people that have been killing people left and right and have been — they’ve made a fortune on selling drugs and destroying our people.”

Sheinbaum rebuffed the overture, and by July, Trump was threatening tariffs over what he deemed “insufficient” Mexican efforts.

Despite a 90-day tariff delay after high-level talks, the fentanyl flow persists: U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized more than 10 million fentanyl pills in the past four months alone, with seizures up 31% in the last fiscal year despite joint initiatives.

On the cooperation front, there have been bright spots. In September, the U.S. and Mexico announced enhanced security pacts to dismantle smuggling corridors, including intelligence-sharing and public health campaigns against drug use.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, fresh off a trip to Mexico City last week, hailed the “excellent cooperation” in a joint statement, emphasizing joint efforts to halt fentanyl, arms trafficking, and illegal crossings.

Mexican forces, acting on U.S. tips, recently arrested Heriberto Jacobo Perez, a key fentanyl trafficker linked to the Sinaloa Cartel, seizing vehicles, weapons, and thousands of pills in the process.

And in a nod to broader collaboration, the State Department noted Mexico’s role in major precursor chemical busts, crediting Sheinbaum’s border deployments for helping stem the tide.

Still, experts caution that unilateral U.S. moves could backfire. “A new plan to dismantle cartel-run drug-smuggling corridors… was announced… to great fanfare,” but it’s been met with “denial and mistrust south of the border,” wrote analysts at The Conversation in September, pointing to Mexico’s wariness of anything smelling like intervention.

Vanda Felbab-Brown of Brookings echoed that, noting in a recent podcast that while Sheinbaum has escalated enforcement, “unilateral U.S. actions could jeopardize cooperation.”

What Will Happen Next?

The Sinaloa Cartel, for one, has adapted by relocating labs, allying with rivals, and even eyeing European markets to dodge the heat, according to operatives interviewed by The New York Times.

As the Monzón assassination investigation unfolds — with no arrests yet and cartel graffiti claiming responsibility — the incident has reignited public fury in Mexico, where homicides remain near record highs.

For American families grieving fentanyl losses, it’s a grim echo of the shared nightmare. Leavitt wrapped her response by nodding to Trump’s respect for Sheinbaum personally but made clear the administration’s patience is thin: “The president has obviously used the full range of executive options… to crack down on drug trafficking at our southern border.”

With Congress briefed eight times on anti-cartel ops — and a ninth session set for Tuesday including Democrats — the White House insists transparency is key.

But as shutdown chaos grounds flights and delays benefits, the cartel fight feels like one more front in a broader battle over America’s security. Whether Mexico steps up or the U.S. goes it alone, the stakes — in lives and sovereignty — couldn’t be higher.

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