Barack Obama regularly buckled to our allies when it came to policy in order to avoid pissing them off.
Donald Trump does not offer that luxury, as his recent stance with the Mexican cartels will prove.
Since Mexico will not declare war on the Cartel, Donald Trump just did.
If It Looks Like Duck…
For some reason, the Mexican government refuses to use its resources to end the Cartel problem in the country.
Well, I take that back, we all know why the government won’t go after the cartels… because the Mexican government is about as corrupt as it gets.
That, however, does not mean Donald Trump has to sit back and allow the cartels to continue their actions unchecked.
Trump decided to take the matter into his own hands and is working to designate the Mexican cartels as terrorist organizations.
While speaking with Bill O’Reilly recently, Trump stated, “They will be designated.
“I have been working on that for the last 90 days.
“You know, designation is not that easy, you have go through a process and we are in that process.”
Forcing Mexico’s Hand
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was clearly caught off guard by the announcement by Trump, and there is ample reason for him to be worried about this.
If the Mexican cartels are a designated terrorist group, it could wreck Mexico’s economy.
By U.S. law, any person that is knowingly associating with such a designated organization is forbidden from using U.S. financial institutions.
They are also prohibited from doing business with designated organizations.
This would obviously mean the Mexican government would be blocked from using our financial institutions, so leadership is in panic mode right now.
When Trump made his announcement, the Mexican foreign ministry immediately stated that it wanted to meet with U.S. officials to discuss this matter.
Whether or not Trump will be successful in getting the designation remains to be seen, but this may just be a way of forcing Mexico’s hand to clean up their own backyard.
The Bush and Obama administrations both made the same threat, but neither had the balls to follow through.
Something tells me that will not be the case with Trump.
It is highly unlikely he would have put this out there unless he intended to follow through with his threat.