Pentagon Chief Not Ruling Out Military Action Against Mexican Drug Cartels

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks with the media during his first official arrival at the Pentagon in Washington on Jan. 27, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday that the Trump administration is not ruling out military action against Mexican drug cartels after they were declared foreign terrorist organizations earlier this month.

“Ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the American people,” Hegseth said in a Fox News interview in response to a question from “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade about whether the military would strike a cartel organization inside Mexico if those organizations targeted Americans at the U.S.–Mexico border.

“All options will be on the table if we’re dealing with what are designated to be foreign terrorist organizations who are specifically targeting Americans on our border.”

He emphasized that the final decision is “ultimately” up to the president.

“The military is orienting, shifting toward an understanding of homeland defense on our sovereign territorial border. That is something we will do and do robustly,” Hegseth said. “We’re already doing it.

“Should there be other options necessary to prevent the cartels from continuing to pour people—gangs and drugs and violence—into our country, we will take that on. So the president will make that call. I’ll work with him in that decision-making process. Ultimately, we will hold nothing back to secure the American people.”

Earlier this week, a Texas Department of Public Safety official confirmed that state officials assisted U.S. Border Patrol agents after they “received gunfire from cartel members in Mexico while patrolling in Fronton,” a Texas border town.

In one of his first acts as president on Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating cartels, Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, and Salvadoran gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations. He did not specifically name any Mexican cartel, including the more powerful and notorious ones such as the Sinaloa Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or the Los Zetas criminal syndicate.

The president did mention that some Mexican cartels “function as quasi-governmental entities, controlling nearly all aspects of society” in certain places, adding that their activities threaten U.S. national security and the American public. To kick off his administration, Trump signed a slew of executive orders, several of which focus on securing the southern border.

This was in addition to measures that included declaring an emergency on the U.S. southern border, halting all refugee admissions to the United States until they align with his agenda, reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and ending the use of the CBP One app, which allowed migrants to apply for asylum appointments before reaching the border. The administration has also ramped up immigration enforcement efforts across various U.S. cities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Embassy earlier this week issued a “do not travel” warning to four municipalities in Tamaulipas state, just south of Texas, after the discovery of improvised explosive devices on roads in the area.

The recent designation targeting cartels comes as cartel violence has intensified in northern Mexican states after the kidnapping and detention of kingpin Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada sparked an all-out war between rival factions of the Sinaloa cartel. Gunmen continue to leave mutilated bodies scattered across the state and kidnap people even from hospitals.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.