President Trump’s blunt warning — “We’re going to kill them” — is exactly the kind of clear, unapologetic message Americans deserve from a commander-in-chief who understands that words matter and weakness costs lives. For years Washington’s elites wrung their hands while Chinese chemical precursors and cartel networks poured fentanyl into our towns; now the administration is finally answering with action, not sermons. The president made those remarks as he outlined a tougher phase of the campaign against narco-terrorists, refusing to let bureaucratic timidity hand another generation to the dealers.
The military campaign is not rhetorical posturing — U.S. forces have carried out strikes at sea and expanded deployments across the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, hitting trafficker vessels and disrupting smuggling routes. Those operations, which have been credited with reducing maritime drug inflows and have resulted in dozens of confirmed enemy casualties, demonstrate that deterrence sometimes requires decisive force. Americans who value safety over sanctimony should cheer a policy that finally treats the cartels like the transnational criminal enterprises they are, not like respectable trading partners.
Of course, the usual suspects in the press and on the left are shrieking about legality and process, because moralizing is cheaper than winning. Legal debates are legitimate, but they cannot become cover for paralysis while fentanyl continues to slaughter our children; political opponents would rather grandstand than secure our streets. Even with the predictable criticism, the administration has signaled it will brief Congress and rely on a combination of executive authority and international cooperation to keep America safe.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado — now an internationally recognized voice for liberty and this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate — joined Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures to make the plain case conservatives already know: Nicolás Maduro’s regime is a criminal hub that shields narco-gangs and worse, and Venezuela needs help to end that tyranny. Machado, who has been forced into hiding by Maduro’s repression, urged coordinated pressure and enforcement to cut off the flow of drugs and to restore Venezuelan democracy. Her courage under persecution and her plea for assistance show the moral clarity of backing those who fight tyranny, not protecting dictators who traffic in human misery.
Patriots should be blunt: the cartels are not merely criminals, they are killers who export death to American neighborhoods, and anyone who treats them as negotiable partners is complicit in the carnage. Senators and conservative leaders have rightly voiced support for taking the fight to narco-terrorists rather than surrendering our border and our youth to them, and Republican officials are demanding results instead of excuses. This is the kind of leadership that stops the hemorrhaging in our cities and reasserts the basic duty of government — to protect its citizens.
If Congress, the courts, or the chattering class want to test the legal arguments, let them do so without obstructing operations that are saving American lives; demand accountability, not obstruction. Washington conservatives and voters must rally behind the president’s resolve while insisting on transparency and lawful oversight, because strength without oversight is dangerous but oversight without strength is dead policy. The moment calls for unity behind a strategy that works: choke the supply lines, dismantle the cartels, and stand with brave democrats like María Corina Machado who want freedom for their people — and safety for ours.
