That doesn’t mean that Trump is pulling back from the world, however. U.S. war planners are increasingly focused on containing China in the Pacific. But Trump’s bellicose rhetoric on immigration and his fixation on the southern border are also leading the Pentagon somewhere the military hasn’t gone in over a century: Mexico, where soldiers are already being sent to help the fight against paramilitary drug cartels. Green Berets are currently in the country, training Mexican troops while American drones have been spotted in cartel territory. The American military has quietly but dramatically increased its footprint south of the border in the early days of Trump’s term. If this trend continues, experts fear it could lead to an official US military campaign in Mexico.
In late January, civilians using FlightRadar24—an open source airplane tracking app—spotted RC Rivet Joint aircraft and P-8 Poseidons, which are used to collect imagery and suck up signal intelligence data, flying along the border with Mexico near cartel hotspots. Earlier this week, it was reported that the CIA was using MQ-9 “Reaper” drones, a War on Terror staple that can be armed with missiles, on spy missions deep inside of Mexican airspace to tail cartels.
Reports first emerged earlier this week via the Mexican government and social media account that ten American soldiers in the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group (widely known as the Green Berets) were in Mexico on a training mission at a naval base in Campeche on the Gulf coast. Some speculated that the soldiers were there to carry out offensive missions on cartels, though representatives insist there is nothing nefarious happening.
For its part, the Pentagon did not publicly disclose the training, which SOCOM was quick to downplay. “This is part of normal routine, pre-planned military training with the Mexican Marine Infantry as part of long-standing U.S.-Mexico defense cooperation,” it said, but did not clarify if it was geared towards countering narco traffickers or when it was ordered. SOCOM added the training fell under a general agreement with Mexico to build its military capabilities.
In October 2001, Green Berets were deployed to Afghanistan, where they fought on horseback with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, becoming some of the first U.S. soldiers on the ground in what would quickly become the War on Terror. Ukrainian special forces sources have confirmed that American trainers were drilling them, long before Russia’s February 2022 invasion, while a retired Green Beret has claimed it was his famed unit working with the country’s military.
The Pentagon is arguably as focused on Mexico as it is on China. On a call with his Mexican counterpart earlier in the month, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth highlighted, “the importance of Mexico’s armed forces continuing to disrupt cartel activities that threaten the United States.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Trump made unilateral U.S. action more likely by placing the Sinaloa, Jalisco, Michoacan and other major regional narcotics-trafficking cartels on the official list of designated terrorist organizations.
Elon Musk, who dictates much of the Trump administration’s policy as head of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, giddily laid out the stakes on Wednesday: “That means they’re eligible for drone strikes.”
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