Retired Gen. Jack Keane’s blunt assessment on Fox News is exactly what Americans need to hear: President Trump is dead serious about stopping the drug slaughter at our border, and he’s willing to use every tool to do it. After a decisive strike on a vessel tied to Venezuelan narco-traffickers, the administration signaled it will no longer tolerate Caracas functioning as a narco-state exporting fentanyl and chaos into our communities. That kind of clarity and action is a welcome change from the feckless, feel-good foreign policies of the last decade.
For years the left pretended the border crisis and the fentanyl flood were somebody else’s problem, while hardworking Americans paid the price with ruined families and rising overdose deaths. Now we have a president who understands national sovereignty means defending the American people first, and who recognizes that regime actors who profit from drug trafficking are legitimate targets for pressure. If that sounds like leadership, it’s because it is — the alternative is more death and more open borders.
Call it what it is: Maduro’s regime has long been wedded to criminal enterprise, and allowing that to continue unchecked was a strategic failure with a human cost. Conservatives rightly demand toughness when our citizens are being poisoned and when foreign dictators enable criminal cartels to operate with impunity. Trump’s push for regime change in Venezuela isn’t warmongering; it’s a sane, necessary response to a transnational threat that has bled into our streets and schools.
The predictable chorus of hand-wringing from the media and the Left will brand any strong action as reckless, but Americans remember who kept this country safe. We remember the empty rhetoric of diplomats while our neighbors died of overdoses. It’s past time to stop apologizing for defending our people — and to start holding accountable those who fund and facilitate the drug trade, no matter the flag they rally under.
Yes, there are risks in confronting a tyrant who clings to power, but the greater risk is letting him continue to finance narco-terrorism and undermine regional stability. A strategy combining economic pressure, diplomatic isolation, and targeted military options is exactly the kind of firm hand that breaks criminal networks while minimizing needless escalation. The real question is why more leaders haven’t shown this backbone sooner.
Conservatives should back policies that protect American lives and restore order to the hemisphere, not the cautious inertia of career politicians who put optics over outcomes. The president’s stance sends a message: the United States will defend its citizens, enforce its borders, and push back against regimes that profit from American suffering. That is a message of strength, common sense, and justice.
If Washington wants to rebuild trust with working Americans, it ought to follow this thread — close the loopholes, back our law enforcement, cut off the cash flows, and support freedom-seeking Venezuelans who have suffered under a criminal regime. Leadership means taking risks for the public good; standing by while our people die is the greater moral abdication. Patriots everywhere should applaud a president who finally shows he’s willing to act.
