Leakers embedded in the Trump administration are apparently “OK” with the deaths of 75,000+ Americans per year from the Mexican cartel supplied heroin/fentanyl scourge shredding families and communities across the country.
President Trump, seeking to directly combat the deadly attacks on Americans, announced his plan to declare Mexican cartels “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” (FTOs) on Nov. 26, 2019, during an interview with Bill O’Reilly. The president was careful to give himself flexibility in responding to a terror designation question from O’Reilly, stating, “I don’t want to say what I’m going to do, but they will be designated.”
The White House and Trump administration leakers — reportedly five individuals — made their unlawful, seditious disclosures to the Reuters news agency in yet another attempt by establishment Washington to undermine President Trump’s initiatives to secure the border and protect American lives. The leakers are trying, once again, to corner President Trump; discredit his decision; provide talking points for the anti-Trump media syndicate; maintain the failed law policy status quo; build consensus among “sensible” public policy wonks; create fissures within the Republican Party; and allow Americans to die.
Reuters reported, “Exclusive: After Cabinet opposed Mexican cartel policy, Trump forged ahead,” in an article published Dec. 26. Reuters provided the leakers anonymity, writing, “Cabinet members and top aides from across the government recommended against it, five people knowledgeable about the matter told Reuters.”
Perpetuating the 50-year failure of U.S. policies on combating the Mexican cartels and securing the southern border is a mainstay duty of establishment Washington. While the quote is variously ascribed to Albert Einstein, Ben Franklin or Mark Twain, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.”
The leakers and their various patrons in establishment Washington are advocates for insanity. Remember, these are the sorts of folks — bureaucrats and professional political operatives — who piously scold and lecture the American public on how “we can’t ‘abandon’ Syria because our national security is at risk!” Or that “delaying military aid to Ukraine [without disruption or shortfall] is a threat to the Constitution!”
Here’s a key section in the Reuters article: “The agencies represented at the meetings included the departments of State, Justice, Homeland Security, Defense, Treasury and Commerce, one administration official said. Numerous current and former U.S. officials and other experts say that designating Mexican cartels as FTOs would be counter-productive.”
Will it be “productive” if the Mexican cartels kill 100,000+ Americans per year? What’s the threshold?
Knocking down establishment Washington’s “do nothing” arguments and timid proposals for half-measures is a column for another day. They are a legion of false-choice scenarios and disingenuous suppositions. We’re supposed to believe it’s all just too hard and too complicated – a problem just impossible for America.
Instead, we should focus today on the leakers and the interests they truly represent. Can President Trump identify the leakers? Can he fire or reassign these insubordinate officials? Will accountability be found through the offices of White House Chief of Staff Mulvaney, or the notoriously inept Presidential Personnel Office? The Trump White House has been plagued with leaks, some merely embarrassing, some criminal, since day one. What are the consequences for leakers?
Who benefits from the leakers’ unlawful disclosures and their collaboration in developing the media syndicate narrative? Not surprisingly, in establishment Washington, there are a number of beneficiaries. There’s the open-borders lobby — from “immigrant rights” groups to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the politicized leadership of any number of law enforcement associations, and the entrenched bureaucratic interests of departments and agencies that have zero incentive to cooperate and collaborate with other departments and agencies that might break their respective “territories,” threatening the institutional empires of funding, staffing and power.
Lastly, the dirty secret no one discusses is law enforcement corruption. It may be taboo – but it must be stated plainly: Mexican cartels have penetrated every level of U.S. law enforcement – municipal, county, state and federal.
How else is one to believe that the U.S. has been incapable of stemming the flow of drugs into the country for more than a generation? We’re supposed to accept that drug smugglers are just too smart for us? They are too sophisticated, too savvy, or too advanced? The U.S. is capable of moving combat forces around the world and successfully carrying out complex joint operations in the most inhospitable, violent environments – but we’re utterly incapable of interdicting the flow of heroin/fentanyl to Dayton, Ohio? Does anyone really believe this? Who is happy with the status quo? Who is “OK” with 75,000+ dead Americans at the Mexican cartels’ hands every year?
It’s a question of political will. President Trump has clearly signaled his willingness to radically change America’s approach to the Mexican cartels’ sustained deadly attack on America. He’s ready to go on offense and stop the insanity. Leakers seek to undermine the foundation of President Trump’s leadership. Who are the leakers and what are they really hoping to achieve?
Chris Farrell is director of investigations and research for Judicial Watch, a nonprofit watchdog group. He previously worked as a counterintelligence case officer.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.