Trump vows war on border crime lords, says Biden sided 'with the cartels' against US

Former President Donald Trump released a video on TruthSocial Thursday vowing "war on the cartels" poisoning Americans with lethal drugs if elected president again in 2024 and blasting the Biden administration for "open border policies" he called a "deadly betrayal of our nation."

"Fentanyl, heroin, meth, and other lethal drugs are pouring across our wide open border," Trump began, "stealing hundreds of thousands of beautiful American lives, and it's happening like never before in our history. Children are being left without parents. Families are being ripped apart. Communities are being decimated. Our neighbors and fellow citizens are having their entire worlds destroyed." 

Trump pinned the blame for the destruction squarely on his successor's lax border security policies, while promising to turn the tables on the smuggling cartels in a second Trunmp administration, if elected again.

"Our country is being poisoned from within by the drugs and by all of the other crime that's taking place," Trump declared. "The drug cartels are waging war on Americans, and it's now time for America to wage war on the cartels. In this war, Joe Biden has sided against the United States and with the cartels. They are making more money than they've ever made before times 10. There's never been anything like it. They're major major companies. They're bigger than even some of our biggest companies. Biden's open border policies are a deadly betrayal of our nation." 

Trump compared his plan to take on the cartels to his presidency's successful campaign to dismantle ISIS. 

"When I am President, it will be the policy of the United States to take down the cartels, just as we took down ISIS and the ISIS caliphate" he said. 

"We will show no mercy to the cartels," Trump warned, outlining an unprecedented, multidimensional offensive against the cartels involving conventional military and paramilitary operations, economic pressure, diplomatic alliance with Mexico — coupled with a threat to expose official corruption hampering Mexican efforts against the cartels — and severe legal penalties for traffickers. 

"In addition to restoring strong border security, I will deploy all necessary military assets, including the U.S. Navy to impose the full naval embargo on the cartels ... We will guarantee that the waters of the Western Hemisphere are not used to traffic illicit drugs to our country. Furthermore, I will order the Department of Defense to make appropriate use of special forces, cyber warfare and other overt and covert actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure and operations."

The 45th president said he would add the cartels to the foreign terrorist organization list, facilitating their economic isolation. 

"I will designate the major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations," he proclaimed. "We will sever their access to global financial systems. I will also work to forge an unprecedented partnership with neighboring governments in our region, just like I did in Mexico — and remember, in Mexico alone an estimated 100,000 civilians have been tragically murdered or gone missing at the hands of these cartels. The Mexican government, run by a very fine man, the president, is really working hard. But it's not working out. These cartels are vicious, and they are violent. And they have Mexico, for now, stymied. Well, we have to help Mexico, and we have to stymie the cartels. Either we will get the full cooperation of other governments to stop this menace, or we will expose every bribe, every kickback, every payoff and every bit of corruption that is allowing the cartels to preserve their brutal reign."

Trump announced that if elected to a second term he would seek legislation establishing the death penalty for cartel kingpins.  

"I will ask Congress to pass legislation, ensuring that drug smugglers and human traffickers receive the death penalty," he said. "The drug cartels and their allies in the Biden administration have the blood of countless millions of their hands. Millions and millions of families and people are being destroyed." 

"When I'm back in the White House, the drug kingpins and vicious traffickers will never sleep soundly again."