The Dictatorship
The Trump administration’s war on drugs is turning out to be worse than the first one
The U.S. is plunging headlong into a revived war on drugs that could soon outdo the harms of its catastrophic predecessor. Over the past several weeks, the Trump administration has dramatically escalated its military campaign against alleged drug traffickers: first with another wave of strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea and now with reported plans to send U.S. troops and intelligence officers into Mexico to target drug cartels.
The reported Mexican mission, which sources say would involve drone strikes and may not be coordinated with the Mexican government, would mark a stunning break from decades of U.S. policy and an unprecedented expansion of the drug war’s global reach.
The reported Mexican mission would mark an unprecedented expansion of the drug war’s global reach.
Critics of President Donald Trump’s actions are questioning both the legality and constitutionality of these operations, which have been launched without congressional approval or oversight. And the president has made clear he has no plans to seek either. Through its growing reliance on unilateral military force, the administration is displaying a dogmatic belief — detached from evidence — that violence and coercion can subdue a drug trade shaped by complex social, economic and geopolitical forces.
As retired law enforcement officials with more than 50 years of combined experience, we’ve seen where this kind of approach leads. Trump’s escalating belligerence in Latin America is just the latest and most extreme example of the mission creep of America’s failed drug war framework, which has defined national drug control strategy for much of the past half-century.
A similar punishment-first mindset is now driving domestic policy. Amid raging crises of overdose and addiction, the administration has enacted deep cuts to agencies like the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), crippling programs that save lives and reduce costs. That includes one of the nation’s most cost-effective tools: training and equipping first responders with the overdose-reversal drug naloxone, which can save a life for less than $50. Meanwhile, new proposals for extreme fentanyl sentencing threaten to undo years of bipartisan reform that aimed to make the justice system fairer, leaner and more fiscally responsible.
This trend isn’t confined to one party. Even in deep-blue cities, political backlash has helped undermine proven, low-cost public health tools such as overdose prevention centers and syringe exchanges, some of which had previously carried local support. Local governments nationwide are spending millions pushing unhoused people to the margins, dispersing, arresting, incarcerating and further destabilizing vulnerable individuals in need of care. These efforts only cycle people through jails and emergency rooms at enormous expense, while ignoring more efficient, evidence-based options like treatment and housing support.
The warning signs are unmistakable for anyone who lived through the original war on drugs — a fiscal and moral disaster that wasted more than a trillion taxpayer dollars, filled prisons to the rafters and devastated communities at home and abroad, without making America safer or reducing drug use. Harsh punishment and heavy-handed enforcement have never solved what are fundamentally public health challenges. Research consistently shows that this is an ineffective and expensive policy approach that diverts limited law enforcement resources away from violent crime and toward low-level offenses. That does nothing to improve public safety.
The mounting war on cartels is yet another signal of the administration’s commitment to a coercive, force-first approach.
The mounting war on cartels is yet another troubling signal of the administration’s commitment to a coercive, force-first approach. In the name of fighting drugs, the administration has authorized strikes that have now killed dozens on the open seas, without due process or even proof of criminal conduct. The administration has defended these actions as “necessary,” even as reports cast doubt on the targets’ connection to drug trafficking. In terms of outcomes, the campaign will serve as little more than a costly distraction meant to project toughness while masking the administration’s own role in worsening the crisis at home.
Any one of these developments would be cause for concern. Together, they represent a wholesale retreat from the progress we’ve made. We are watching the formation of a perfect storm: a collapse in supportive services paired with renewed enthusiasm for punishment, control and cruelty.
As a result, we will see more preventable deaths, more untreated illness and a rising human and financial toll. And with leaders rapidly transferring public resources away from supportive services and toward the criminal justice system, law enforcement will be given the impossible task of managing the fallout.
This country’s political backsliding arises from a dangerous nostalgia for the “tough on crime” posturing that has failed us before. Fear and political opportunism are once again driving policy where evidence should. If criminalization could solve these problems, then we wouldn’t be in this crisis today. If military might could eliminate drug trafficking, the decadeslong war on cartels would already be won.
There is still time to change course. But doing so will require the moral courage to reject the expedience of “get tough” politics and instead invest in what actually works. Study after study shows that every dollar spent on treatment, housing, harm reduction and mental health services saves several in avoided justice costs, emergency care and lost productivity. In contrast, every dollar spent on enforcement yields almost no measurable reduction in drug use or overdoses.
If elected officials are serious about protecting Americans from the harms of drugs, then they must abandon the illusion that effective drug control strategy can be built around force alone. The path forward begins with fully funding treatment, housing, harm reduction and mental health services — not just as alternatives to the justice system, but as the foundation of a robust system of care that promotes safer, healthier communities.
At the very least, our leaders must stop dismantling the progress we’ve already made. We cannot afford to lose another generation to the same failed policies.
Lt. Diane Goldstein
Lt. Diane Goldstein (Ret.) is a 21-year police veteran and executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP), a nonprofit group of police, judges, and other law enforcement professionals who support policies that improve public safety and police-community relations.
Maj. Neill Franklin
Major Neill Franklin (Ret.) is a 34-year law enforcement veteran of the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Department. During his time with the Maryland State Police, he held the position of commander for the Education and Training Division and the Bureau of Drug and Criminal Enforcement Maj. Franklin retired as executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership in 2020 after 10 years of leadership.
President Donald Trump and top administration officials said Sunday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will arrive at the nation’s airports on Monday to handle security at exceedingly long lines driven by a shortage of TSA workers.
“I look forward to moving ICE in on Monday, and have already told them to, ‘GET READY.’ NO MORE WAITING, NO MORE GAMES!” Trump said on Truth Social.
Tom Homan, the White House border czar who will lead the effort, provided few details but confirmed the plan on BLN’s “State of the Union,” saying, “It’s a work in progress, but we will be at airports tomorrow.” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said later that “hundreds of ICE officers” would be deployed to airports “adversely impacted,” but she did not specify which airports.
It was unclear whether ICE officers would be conducting pat-down procedures but Homan suggested their focus would be on security instead of screening. “A highly-trained ICE law enforcement officer can cover an exit, that relieves TSA to go to screening,” he said, adding that the priority will be on “those large airports where there’s a long wait, like three hours.”
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to MS NOW’s request for comment on whether officers will be wearing masks at the airports to which they are deployed. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy suggested Sunday that Democrats are the reason why federal immigration and border officers wear masks.
“Democrats want ICE to take off their face masks. The problem with that is we know the Democrats are going to want to dox those ICE agents, go to their homes, harass their kids,” he said on ABC News.
The ongoing partial government shutdown, which began after funding for the Department of Homeland Security lapsedon Feb. 14, has forced Transportation and Security Administration workers to go unpaid —with hundreds of them quitting or not showing up for work, severely disrupting air travel.
Duffy said security lines will “get much worse” this week. He predicted more TSA agents will quit by Friday, when they’ll go without another paycheck unless lawmakers reach a deal.
Trump said on Saturday that ICE agents would “do Security like no one has ever seen before, including the immediate arrest of all Illegal Immigrants who have come into our Country, with heavy emphasis on those from Somalia.”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, whose city has been ground zero for the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, said Sunday on MS NOW’s “The Weekend” that Trump “doesn’t actually mean that he’s going to keep people secure.”
“We all know that’s not the goal. The goal is to terrorize people,” Frey said. When asked if he thought the president was racist for his targeting of Somalis, the mayor said, “I think the answer is yes.”
Speaking on the Senate floor during a rare weekend session on Sunday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., lambasted Trump’s plan to send ICE agents to airports, calling it “really disturbing.”
“It’s a plan that has no planning. It’s another impulsive action from Donald Trump,” Schumer said. “When he acts impulsively there’s usually trouble. Whenever Donald Trump acts impulsively with no follow through, there’s trouble.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also criticized Trump’s plan, saying that “air dropping” agents to airports is “not a fix.”
The Association of Flight Attendants said ICE officers lack the kind of specialized training that the TSA’s transportation security officers get. “Furthermore, the introduction of ICE agents into airports creates contradictory missions, as attempts to question passengers about immigration status may distract them from ensuring airport security,” the union said.
And Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employeesthe largest federal workers’ union, said, “More than 50,000 TSA employees have worked without pay for over five weeks. Hundreds have quit. And Washington’s answer isn’t to pay them. It’s to send ICE agents to do their jobs.”
Congress remains gridlocked over DHS funding, with Democrats demanding reforms to ICE operations after the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens — Renee Good and Alex Pretti— in Minneapolis. Republicans have rejected proposalsto reopen much of Homeland Security, which includes TSA and ICE.
Airline executives from United Airlines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others last week called on Congress to end the shutdownwriting in a joint letter that federal employees working without pay is “simply unacceptable.”
“This problem is solvable, and there are solutions on the table,” they wrote. “Now it’s up to you, Congress, to move forward on bipartisan proposals that will get federal aviation workers—including TSA officers, U.S. Customs clearance officers at airports and air
traffic controllers—paid during shutdowns.”
Mychael Schnell and Emily Hung contributed to this report.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
Cuba is “preparing” for the possibility of U.S. military aggression against the Caribbean island nation, a top Cuban official said Sunday.
“Our military is always prepared, and, in fact, it is preparing these days for the possibility of military aggression,” Cuba’s deputy foreign minister, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, told NBC News. “We would be naive, if looking at what’s happening around the world, we would not do that.”
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Fernández de Cossío added, “But we truly hope that it does not occur. We don’t see why it would have to occur. We find no justification whatsoever.”
He spoke as Cuba began restoring power after a nationwide electricity blackout, which Cuban officials have blamed on a U.S. energy blockade driven by President Donald Trump threats to impose tariffs on any country that provides oil to Cuba. Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canal, acknowledged last week that his government is in talks with the U.S. government.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have repeatedly warned that Cuba could be next to see U.S. military intervention, adding to a growing number of countries, including Venezuela and Iran, where the U.S. military has interfered.
“I do believe I will be having the honor of taking Cuba,” Trump told reporters last week in the Oval Office. “Whether I free it, take it. Think I can do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth.”
Shortly after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January at Trump’s direction, Rubio said“I don’t think it’s any mystery that we are not big fans of the Cuban regime, who, by the way, are the ones that were propping up Maduro.”
Rubio called the Cuban government “a huge problem.”
Trump’s foreign policy has run counter to his campaign promise to end costly warsarguing that Americans will be safer and better off as a result of such interventions. The joint U.S.-Israel war with Iran, for which the objectives remain unclear, has sent the price of oil and gas skyrocketing and deepened instability across the Middle East.
Erum Salam is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW, with a focus on how global events and foreign policy shape U.S. politics. She previously was a breaking news reporter for The Guardian.
The Dictatorship
Trump threatens attacks on Iranian power plants if Tehran fails to open the Strait of Hormuz
CAIRO (AP) — Iran responded Sunday with threats of its own, a day after President Donald Trumpwarned the United States will “obliterate” Iran’s power plants if Tehran fails to fully open the Strait of Hormuzin 48 hours and Iranian missiles struck two cities near Israel’s main nuclear research center, injuring dozens and shattering apartment buildings.
The developments signaled the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth weekwas moving in a dangerous new direction.
Sirens blared across Israel as Iran launched new barrages Sunday. In the country’s south, residents faced the devastation in the cities of Dimona and Arad. In northern Israel, a man was killed in a strike by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu toured Arad and said it was a “miracle” that no one was killed by the blast, which heavily damaged several buildings. But he said that if all residents had rushed to shelters, no one would have been hurt and urged all to heed the sirens.
Iran responds to Trump’s ultimatum
Trump said on Saturday that he would give Iran 48 hours to open the vital Strait of Hormuzor face a new round of attacks. He said the U.S. would destroy “various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”
He may have meant the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran’s biggest, which was already hit last week, or Damavand, a natural gas plant near Tehran, Iran’s capital.
In turn, Iran warned early Sunday that any strike on its energy facilities would prompt attacks on U.S. and Israeli energy and infrastructure assets — specifically information technology and desalination facilities — in the region, according to a statement citing an Iranian military spokesperson carried by state media and semiofficial outlets.
The Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and is a critical pathway for the world’s flow of oil. Attacks on commercial shipsand threats of further strikes have stopped nearly all tankers from carrying oil, gas and other goodsthrough the passage, leading to cuts in output from some of the world’s largest oil producers, because their crude has nowhere to go.
Seyed Ali Mousavi, Iran’s envoy to the International Maritime Organization, said in remarks carried by two Iranian news agencies that navigating the strait is possible for “everyone except enemies” — indicating Tehran would determine which vessels are allowed passage. Iran has already approved the passage of ships through the waterway to China and elsewhere in Asia.
Iran strikes area near Israeli nuclear site
Israel’s military said it was not able to intercept missiles that hit Dimona and Arad on Saturday, the largest cities near the Negev Desert nuclear center. It was the first time Iranian missiles penetrated Israel’s air defense systems in the area.
“If the Israeli regime is unable to intercept missiles in the heavily protected Dimona area, it is, operationally, a sign of entering a new phase of the battle,” Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said on X.
Rescue workers said at least 64 people were taken to hospitals after the direct hit in Arad. Dimona is about 20 kilometers (12 miles) west of the nuclear research center and Arad around 35 kilometers (22 miles) north.
Israel’s hard-line national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Arad on Sunday, saying that Israel is in a “historic battle” against Iran and that it must “continue until victory.”
Israel is believed to possess nuclear weapons, though it doesn’t confirm or denythis. The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on X it had not received reports of damage to the Israeli center or any abnormal radiation levels.
Israel denies responsibility for attack on Natanz
Tehran’s main nuclear enrichment site at Natanzwas hit earlier on Saturday. Israel denied responsibility for the attack and the Iranian judiciary’s official news agency, Mizan, said there was no leakage.
The Pentagon declined to comment on the strike on Natanz, which was also hit in the first week of the ongoing war and in the 12-day warlast June.
The U.N. watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — has said the bulk of Iran’s estimated 972 pounds (441 kilograms) of enriched uranium is elsewhere, beneath the rubble at its Isfahan facility.
The U.S. and Israel have offered shifting rationalesfor the war, from hoping to foment an uprisingthat topples Iran’s leadership to eliminating its nuclear and missile programsand its support for armed proxies. There have been no signs of an uprising, while internet restrictions limit information from Iran.
The war’s effects are felt far beyond the Middle East, raising food and fuel prices.
So far in Iran, the death toll in the war has surpassed 1,500, the state broadcaster reported Saturday, citing the health ministry. In Israel, 15 people have been killed by Iranian missiles. Four others have died in the occupied West Bank. At least 13 U.S. military members have been killed, along with well over a dozen civilians in Gulf nations.
Hezbollah claims deadly strike on northern Israel
Hezbollah said it was behind a strike on Sunday that killed a man in the northern Israeli town of Misgav Am in what the Israeli military said “seemed to be” a rocket attack. Israeli medics said they found the man dead in his car and released a video showing two vehicles ablaze.
Hezbollah, an ally of Iran, launched strikes on Israel soon after the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran started on Feb. 28, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Israel struck back, bombarding Lebanon and targeting Hezbollah in deadly airstrikes, expanding its presence in southern Lebanon and amassing more troops near the border.
Lebanese authorities say Israel’s strikes have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced more than 1 million.
Crash in Qatar
Qatar said Sunday that all seven people aboard a Qatari helicopter that crashed the previous day in the Gulf Arab nation’s territorial waters are dead — including three Turkish nationals, a military officer and two civilians.
The confirmation came after the body of the missing Qatari pilot was found on Sunday. The crash was blamed on a “technical malfunction.”
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