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President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he plans to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and launch a nationwide anti-drug advertising campaign to combat drug use in the United States.
“I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations,” Trump declared at the Turning Point USA AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona, reaffirming a key campaign promise.
Trump’s Previous Efforts
In 2019, during his first term, Trump considered making a similar designation for the cartels but ultimately refrained after then-Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sought cooperation with the U.S. instead of unilateral action.
Trump’s campaign platform for 2024, however, details a plan to direct the Department of Defense to employ “special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations.”
Anti-Drug Ad Campaign
The president-elect also unveiled an initiative to educate Americans on the dangers of drug use through an ad campaign.
“We’re going to advertise how bad drugs are for you,” Trump said. “They ruin your look, they ruin your face, they ruin your skin, they ruin your teeth.”
Although further specifics about the campaign were not provided, this appears to be the first time Trump has discussed the effort publicly.
The plan draws parallels to anti-drug ad blitzes in the 1970s and 1980s, including former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s iconic “Just Say No” campaign. Public schools during that era also employed programs such as D.A.R.E. to educate young Americans about the dangers of drug use, prevent gang involvement, and address violent behavior.
Fentanyl Epidemic
In recent years, the United States has experienced a devastating opioid crisis, with fentanyl at its epicenter. The synthetic opioid is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, with just 2 milligrams capable of causing a fatal overdose. Mexican drug cartels have been widely implicated in trafficking fentanyl across the U.S.–Mexico border, contributing to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in America.
Combating the fentanyl epidemic and illegal immigration has been a central focus of Trump’s 2024 campaign. Since his electoral victory last month, the president-elect has pledged to implement mass deportations and declare a nationwide emergency to address border security.
Mass Deportations Plan
The incoming administration’s proposed mass deportation plan, spearheaded by border czar Tom Homan—former acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—will prioritize deporting individuals who have committed crimes or are considered threats to national security.
While Trump has emphasized deporting anyone residing in the country illegally, he has also indicated potential leniency for immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children under certain conditions.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants were living in the U.S. as of 2022. During his 2024 campaign, Trump promised to create the “largest deportation effort in the history of our country,” leveraging the National Guard and local police forces to execute the initiative.
