President Donald Trump hinted that the US is inching towards striking countries harboring drug cartels just over a month after seizing Nicolas Maduro from his bed and taking operational control of Venezuela. It comes on the heels of a brief and complete airport shutdown in the southern border city of El Paso, Texas on Wednesday morning after Mexican drones entered US airspace. On Tuesday, the president bragged to Fox News that drug trafficking into the US has dropped by 33 percent after the middle-of-the-night capture of Maduro last month – and the administration has since left open the possibility that Trump’s military campaign could widen beyond Venezuela.
Trump Signals Escalation From Sea to Land in Anti-Drug Crackdown
‘Now we’re gonna start on land,’ Trump said in the interview aired Tuesday night. ‘We had to do the boats first because they would go immediately to the boats.’ ‘Now we’re gonna hit them on land. We’re gonna hit them very hard on land.’ It wasn’t immediately clear which country Trump was referencing with his remarks, but the administration’s rhetoric towards Mexico has been on the rise and the White House did not deny that he was considering action in other Latin American countries. ‘The President has left all options on the table to stop drugs from flooding into our country – just as he promised,’ White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told the Daily Mail when asked whether the president’s remarks were about Venezuela or if he is considering land strikes in other countries.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reopened Wednesday morning just hours after closing airspace around El Paso International Airport along the Texas border with Mexico ‘for special security reasons.’ Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA and the Department of War ‘acted swiftly to address a cartel drone incursion. The threat has been neutralized and there is no danger to commercial travel in the region.’ An administration official confirmed to the Daily Mail that ‘Mexican cartel drones breached US airspace.’ The closure was expected to initially last 10 days, but only was in place for a few hours.
Mexico Seeks Answers Over Airspace Closure
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said during a Wednesday morning press conference: ‘There is no information about the use of drones on the border.’ She committed to her administration investigating the incident and looking into ‘the exact causes of why they closed’ US airspace, and urged Trump’s team to contact her government if they have information to share. The drone action in Texas had led to some questions over whether Trump might use this to take action in Mexico next. A person familiar with the administration’s thinking didn’t deny when asked by the Daily Mail that it’s possible that the White House could use this incident as a reason to get more involved on the ground in Mexico to shut down drug cartel activity.
And a former Pentagon official said ‘given the threat’ by the Mexican drone activity, it could predicate retaliation by Trump. ‘The issue is will Mexico act in a way that addresses this threat coming from its territory into the US,’ they added, suggesting that if the Mexican government acts, it could deter Trump from wanting to do it himself. In September 2025, the War Department began conducting strikes against vessels in the Caribbean and southern Atlantic that were allegedly carrying drugs as the Trump administration moved to stop drug trafficking in the region. The operation included at least 38 strikes and resulted in the deaths of 128 people.
This all culminated in the secretive abduction of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their bunker in Venezuela on January 3, 2026. They were extradited to New York where they are facing narcoterrorism and drug trafficking charges, among others. Trump has previously threatened to also conduct US military strikes against drug cartels operating out of Mexico. He told Fox News in early January that he would ‘start now hitting land with regard to the cartels,’ and directly linked it to the US southern neighbors by claiming: ‘The cartels are running Mexico.’ ‘On the campaign trail, President Trump promised to take on the cartels – and he has taken unprecedented action to stop the scourge of narcoterrorism that has resulted in the needless deaths of innocent Americans,’ White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in her statement.
