Anti-Trump social media activists have seized on a joke by Donald Trump as supposed confirmation of an allegation by former US Defense Secretary Mark Esper that the then-president expressed a desire to eliminate Mexico’s cartels and their drug labs via missile strike.
In undated footage reportedly taken at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump expresses awe at the “efficiency” of “the drug cartels,” which he claims “totally control our border now,” before alluding to the Esper accusation:
“I got criticized because somebody leaked that ‘Donald Trump wanted to attack all [the drug cartels’] headquarters sites with rockets.’ And everybody said, ‘what a horrible thing!’ And I didn’t want to deny the story–and people loved it! You know, people loved it.”
It’s not clear whether Trump is admitting that Esper’s contention is true or simply commenting on the political optics of his response to the supposed revelation. But that didn’t stop at least one blue-checked influencer from claiming otherwise:
“Trump just admitted he wanted to bomb Mexico with rockets,” claimed noted anti-Trump social media activist Rex Chapman in response to the footage.
Drug cartels pose an unprecedented threat to not just the Mexican authorities attempting to rein them in and the journalists attempting to cover them, but to everyday working people as well.
Over 350,000 Mexicans have reportedly been murdered by cartel members since the 1960’s – the vast majority since the 1980s, when the US government began using cartels to traffick weapons and cocaine between the US and Latin America in order to finance its illegal dirty war on Nicaragua and arm its proxy force there.
To this day, Mexico’s cartels continue to rely heavily on the US for weapons – sometimes, even relying on the US government itself. In one particularly scandalous episode, a Barrett .50 caliber anti-material sniper rifle – capable of taking out armored personnel carriers and aircraft – was recovered from the possession of the notorious Mexican drug lord “El Chapo.” However, it later turned out to have been intentionally handed over by the US government after President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice greenlit the so-called Fast and Furious “gunwalking” operation.