Trump is eager to breach Mexico’s sovereignty to attack cartels, officials say — just don’t call it an invasion
A new directive signed last week by President Donald Trump gives the Pentagon authorization to use military force against Latin American drug cartels designated as terrorist organizations, according to administration sources.
A U.S. official familiar with the matter confirmed to Rolling Stone certain details regarding the Trump-signed directive, which was first reported by The New York Times. Other knowledgeable sources, working in or close to this iteration of the Trump White House, say that unless Mexico gives Trump what he wants, this administration is serious about attacking its neighbor to the south. And according to administration officials and others familiar with the Trump administration preparations, it’s not a bluff: This American president wants to violently breach Mexico’s sovereignty — if and when he feels like it. He, after all, effectively campaigned on doing so during his 2024 bid.
Just don’t call any of this a plan for an invasion, U.S. government officials implore.
Speaking about the new directive, a senior administration official says, “It’s not a negotiating tactic. It’s not Art of the Deal. The president has been clear that a strike … is coming unless we see some big, major changes.”
The primary means by which the Chinese government has attempted to influence Taiwanese domestic politics has been diplomatic and economic. They’ve expanded their trade relations and increased foreign investments. They’ve relaxed travel restrictions and even subsidized the cost of travel between the island and the mainland.
One of the recent flashpoints in China/Taiwan relations in recent years was in 2019 when the Hong Kong government implemented a program for extraditing Chinese nationals to Taiwan for criminal prosecution. This was in response to a grisly murder and subsequent flight from the law by the murderer. By attempting to repatriate Chan Tong-kai to Taiwan for the crime of murdering his pregnant girlfriend, the Hong Kong government inadvertently set off months of violent protests.
If you look at the influential model of the Chinese diplomatic core and economic model, they don’t need to establish a military presence in Taiwan. They just need the Taiwanese public to stop seeing Chinese businessmen and politicians as existential threats to their safety.
That’s already happened across West Africa. And it is an increasingly common sentiment across the South Pacific, the Middle East, and the European South. To quote Dr Lubinda Haabazoka, Director of the University of Zambia Graduate School of Business and former President of the Economics Association of Zambia
Oh China has all sorts of influence over Taiwan who are their largest trading partner and their traditional gateway to the west. There’s lots of reasons not to invade.
But leaders aren’t always rational.
glances Putin-ward
No kidding.
Nevertheless, the modern Chinese state seems more rational and less belligerent than most.
More rational than most is not a tough hurdle. The average in state rationality is something like Kazakhstan
Yeah, I agree.