President Trump on Monday defended his administration’s decision to carry out airstrikes on the boats of alleged drug traffickers — and suggested he was open to doing whatever it takes to stop their trade, including launching attacks on Mexican soil.
“Would I launch strikes in Mexico to stop drugs? It’s OK with me. Whatever we have to do to stop drugs,” Trump said. “I looked at Mexico City over the weekend. There’s some big problems over there.”
“Every boat we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives,” he boasted of the strikes on suspected Venezuelan narco-terrorists, during a White House task force meeting on the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“Not to mention the destruction of families. These families are decimated forever,” he added, noting that he’d be “proud” to “knock out” any “cocaine factories” in Colombia too.
The US has conducted at least 22 separate missile strikes on boats that were deemed to be smuggling drugs from Venezuela.
“I’ve been speaking to Mexico. They know how I stand. We’re losing hundreds of thousands of people to drugs,” he went on. “So now we’ve stopped the waterways, but we know every route.”
“We know every route, we know the addresses of every drug lord. We know their address; we know their front door. We know everything about every one of them. They’re killing our people. That’s like a war,” he said.
“Would I do it? I’d be proud to — I’d probably go into Congress,” Trump concluded. “Much of it comes through Mexico. So let me just put it this way: I am not happy with Mexico.”
Trump made the comments in an Oval Office press conference touting the US co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Mexico and Canada, comprising up to 104 games over a monthlong period.
The president had revealed Sunday that Venezuelan officials “would like to talk” about the military actions, as America’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, arrived in the Caribbean Sea.
“Operation Southern Spear,” which was launched in Nov. 13, comprises nearly a dozen Navy ships and around 12,000 sailors and Marines, marking the largest military presence in the Caribbean in 35 years.
The nation’s president Nicolás Maduro was caught on camera Sunday humming a few bars from John Lennon’s “Imagine” as he pleaded for “peace” amid the tensions with the US.
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Trump echoed the call for “peace” when speaking with reporters Sunday and emphasized: “I’ll talk to anybody. We’ll see what happens.”
The Navy deployed other warships as part of the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group as well, following Trump’s “directive to dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations and counter narco-terrorism in defense of the Homeland.”
On Monday in the FIFA event, Trump noted that the expected revenue for hosting the 2026 World Cup is expected to reach $30 billion and create 200,000 jobs in the US.
The championship series for world soccer is also having visas for tourists “prioritized” in consultation with the State Department through a program known as “FIFA Pass.”
“I’ve directed my administration to do everything within the power to make the 2026 World Cup an unprecedented success,” the president said. “I think it’s going to be the greatest, and we are setting records on ticket sales.”
