Trump admin’s war against violent and bloodthirsty cartels delivers much-needed justice
Leftist media mouthpieces and radical-left Democrats have focused relentlessly on unimportant topics while ignoring the Trump administration’s precise victories against DTOs
Opinion-editorial by Summer Lane | October 24, 2025
This week, President Donald Trump hosted a meeting with key members of his cabinet at the White House, focusing on his administration’s war against drug and human trafficking cartels and America’s continued dominance in that area.
“Under the Trump administration, we are finally treating the cartels as the core national security threat that they are …we are waging war on them like they’ve never seen before,” the president said.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed that, under the president’s leadership and a nationwide interagency task force, fentanyl trafficking into the U.S. has dropped by 50 percent.
Further, the president said that there have been more than 120,000 arrests of dangerous criminals by federal law enforcement since January 20, highlighting his administration’s crackdown on foreign-born crime on American soil – a spreading cancer sown by the Biden administration’s reckless open border policies.
Under the Trump administration, deadly cartels like MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the Sinaloa have been marked as Designated Terrorist Organizations (DTOs), and as such, the president has made good on his campaign promise to “wage war” against them.
On Friday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth confirmed that the U.S. carried out a lethal kinetic strike against a Tren de Aragua vessel in the Caribbean, marking at least the 10th time U.S. military forces have carried out such an operation.
The vessel was known by U.S. intelligence to be involved in narcotics smuggling and was carrying narcotics, the secretary said.
“Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike,” Hegseth stated.
He added, “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”
The Trump administration’s triumph against foreign cartel operators attempting to bring deadly drugs into the U.S. is worth highlighting – but the mainstream media refuses to elevate this success and instead focuses on non-starter topics like the White House Ballroom or whether the terrorists should be allowed due process.
The truth: Trump’s crackdown is saving men, women, and children
During Thursday’s meeting at the White House, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard delivered a hefty dose of reality to the media by giving several examples of high-profile cartel apprehensions federal law enforcement has made, thanks to the administration’s hard work.
She highlighted the arrest of Sinaloa cartel boss Leonardo Daniel Martinez Vera, also known as “El Pato,” an individual allegedly responsible for crimes like kidnapping, murder, drug trafficking, and extortion.
El Pato’s top three money launderers were also arrested, she said.
And perhaps most chillingly, she explained, in detail, the arrest of an alleged baby trafficker, Martha Alicia Mendez Aguilar, known as “El Diabla.”
This woman’s alleged crimes are horrific: her trafficking network was known to lure pregnant women to remote locations, perform forced C-sections, harvest the organs from the mother’s bodies, and sell the newborn infants to couples in the United States.
Despite this shocking information – and the victory represented in apprehending such a repulsive ringleader – the mainstream media, on Thursday, chose instead to focus on useless questions about the White House Ballroom or whether the president should obtain a declaration of war from Congress before striking terrorist vessels.
“Tulsi just told the entire country that ODNI has a taskforce going after a baby trafficker that is kidnapping pregnant women and forcing c-sections to sell the babies/trafficking organs and the press is focusing on the WH ballroom???” wrote Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna on X.
“This is intellectual brain rot from the left,” she added.
She’s right. The rot has never been deeper.
During Thursday’s meeting, President Trump addressed the repetitive question of whether he should obtain permission from Congress to go after the cartels.
“I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war,” President Trump said tersely. “I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, okay? We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, DEAD.”
As Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller stated this week: “[Trump’s] vision and [his] leadership in declaring war on the drug cartels is the single most important safety initiative in American history.”
The media can screech all they want, but the reality remains: violent drug and human traffickers who seek to actively harm not just Americans, but innocent victims from their home countries, do not deserve sympathy.
They deserve a heavy-handed dose of justice, which is exactly what they are receiving from the U.S. every time they attempt to move deadly drugs like fentanyl toward the border. Their criminal activities harm the most vulnerable demographics: pregnant women, innocent infants, and children.
Cartel victims are many, and they suffer both inside and outside the borders of the U.S.
“Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute,” says Psalm 82:3.
The Trump administration is doing the right thing in going after drug cartels. They are treating them as terrorists – which they are – and working quickly to ensure these evildoers understand that this behavior will not be tolerated any longer.
“We won’t stop until the threat has been fully and completely eliminated,” President Trump promised.
