Trump Caves to Hawks with Cartel Terrorist Designations

A cartel war is incredibly stupid, and these designations are the first step towards starting that war.

The Trump administration is designating Mexican and other drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Matthew Petti reports:

Trump's executive order will apply both FTO [foreign terrorist organization] and SDGT [special designated global terrorist] designations and will include non-Mexican gangs as well, such as El Salvador's MS-13 and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, according to Fox News.

Hawks have been calling for these designations for years, and Trump is immediately giving them what they want. Listing cartels as terrorist organizations will achieve nothing except to confirm that U.S. terrorism designations are made for the sake of political posturing and aren’t necessarily related to terrorism at all. Trump wishes to be seen “getting tough” on the cartels, and so he calls them terrorists when they aren’t.

It may be viscerally satisfying to call these violent criminals terrorists, but it is nonsense.