Trump threatens ground action against Mexican cartels
Original reporting: El Financiero
What happened
El Financiero reports that Trump threatened ground action against Mexican cartels while saying his administration remained in contact with Sheinbaum's government.
Reporting and context
U.S. President Donald Trump warned on Thursday that ground operations against Mexican drug cartels could begin soon, saying his administration had yet to use its full force, according to El Financiero.
Trump said his government remained in contact with President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration, but repeated his claim that cartels controlled Mexico and that Mexican authorities were unable to confront them effectively. He described Sheinbaum as a "wonderful woman" while saying she was unhappy with his assessment.
The president pointed to the U.S. military campaign against boats he said were carrying drugs and said he had not yet launched a full ground assault. He claimed U.S. authorities knew where cartel figures lived and were striking them hard. The report did not describe a new ground operation already under way.
El Financiero reported that Trump imitated the sound of missiles hitting boats and said he felt no sympathy for those aboard, claiming each vessel caused thousands of deaths through fentanyl. He also joked that people no longer went fishing. The outlet placed those remarks alongside criticism alleging that the operations had killed fishermen extrajudicially.
The comments extended a recurring argument by Trump about organized crime's control of Mexican territory. The newspaper recalled that, in his September address to the United Nations General Assembly, he called Mexico the epicenter of drug trafficking.
Original reporting: El Financiero.