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.
Sen. Thom Tillis issued a harsh critique of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his “mediocre yes-men” on Saturday for what the North Carolina Republican called a “careless decision” to force out and downgrade U.S. general officers.
“Hegseth continues to surprise and disrespect our greatest allies and some of our best military professionals with impulsive decisions not grounded in reality or good judgment,” Tillis wrote in a post on X.
Tillis posted his comments in response to new reporting from NOTUS that the Pentagon is planning on downgrading the Army’s top command overseeing Europe and Africa, which the publication attributed to five people familiar with the decision. The Pentagon has not confirmed such plans and did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MS NOW regarding the NOTUS report and Tillis’s rebuke of Hegseth.
The move would come amid a larger restructuring of U.S. forces in Europe, including the halting of troop deployments to Germany and Poland, and reverse the merger of the Army’s European and African commands that was ordered during Trump’s first term.
Tillis also called out Hegseth for his planned replacement of Gen. Christopher Donahue, which was also first reported by NOTUS. The senator called the reported move to replace Donahue, a four-star general best known as the last U.S. servicemember to exit Afghanistan in 2021, “a step that is not in the best interests of our nation or our servicemembers.”
“If the rumors are true that Hegseth is trying to sideline Gen. Christopher Donahue, one of our nation’s finest warfighters, by downgrading U.S. Army Europe-Africa to a 3-star command, he is taking another step down a dangerous path,” Tillis said.
Last month, Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George — the Army’s top uniformed officer — and two other generals following a purge of other senior military leaders. Tillis said Donahue has “dedicated his entire career to upholding the high standards and warrior ethos that Hegseth claims he is restoring to our ranks.”
Since the North Carolinian announced he would retire from the Senate when his term is up in January, he has become the rare outspoken GOP critic of the Trump administration. He recently held up Kevin Warsh’s nomination to chair the Federal Reserve, only voting to confirm the former financier once the Department of Justice ended its investigation into outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell.
Tillis was initially a holdout for Hegeth’s Senate confirmation but ultimately supported him, though he became a vocal critic of the defense secretary, telling BLN last summer that Hegseth appeared “out of his depth” atop the department.
“Hegseth would do well to surround himself with more patriots like General Donahue and to get his henchmen, who are not qualified to carry Donahue’s bag, out of the Pentagon,” Tillis said at the end of his post. “Keep your word, Mr. Secretary: choose meritocracy over your mediocre yes-men.”
Adam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.
“Bill Cassidy is a sleazebag, a terrible guy, who is BAD FOR LOUISIANA.”
And so began President Donald Trump’s social media rant on Saturday, fresh off his trip to Chinaback in Washington and waging his revenge tour in full force on a day when fealty to the president is on the ballot in the Bayou State.
“Now he’s going to get CLOBBERED, hopefully, in today’s BIG election, by two great people!!!” the president continued in his Truth Social postasking GOP voters in Louisiana to cast their ballots for Rep. Julia Letlow, R-La., the candidate Trump is backing to win the high-profile Senate GOP primary contest in a key test of his strength within the Republican Party as he seeks to punish Cassidy for his betrayal.
In his first Truth Social post aimed at Cassidy since returning to U.S. soil, Trump pointed to the two-term senator’s biggest sin: His 2021 vote to convict Trump on impeachment charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
“Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana is a disloyal disaster. His entire past campaign for the Senate was about ‘TRUMP,’ how he’s with me all the way, and then, after winning, he turned around and voted to IMPEACH me for something that has now proven to be total ‘bullshit!’” Trump wrote.
A third candidate, Louisiana state treasurer John Fleming is also seeking the GOP Senate nomination, and recent polling from Emerson College shows both challengers ahead of Cassidy.
Still, Cassidy has continued to reach out to MAGA voters, saying Friday that the race “is not me versus Donald Trump.”
“If somebody wants someone who can work with President Trump for the good of our country and the good of our state, I’m your candidate,” Cassidy told MS NOW. He did not comment on whether the Republican party has room for those that cross Trump. When asked for comment on the president’s criticism posted Saturday, Cassidy’s campaign responded with a video of Letlow referring to herself as a “progressive leader.”
Cassidy’s battle for political survival illustrates the stark divide within the Republican Party between the establishment and true believers in the MAGA movement.
Richard Logis, a former MAGA activist who defected from Trump’s movement, said Saturday that he believes the MAGA wing of the GOP, which prides itself on being a big-tent party, will continue to splinter as the president’s popularity sinks.
“I do believe that the cracks are there right now,” Logis said on MS NOW’s “The Weekend,” adding, “I think the schisms and the chasms are widening.”
Logis and members of his organization, called Leaving MAGA, are part of a small but vocal community of Republicans mounting an effort to redirect the future of the GOP away from the MAGA movement that Trump created, but their mission faces long odds.
According to polling by YouGov63% of Republicans today identify as MAGA, up from 53% in 2025 and 38% back in 2023, a year after Logis left the movement. However, MAGA identification among registered independent voters remains low in the latest polling data — just 12% — and overall, only one in four voters in the U.S. identifies as MAGA.
Trump has spent much of his second term punishing those within his party who broke with his agenda, including a handful of state senators in Indiana who rejected his push to redraw the state’s congressional map. Of the seven state senators who were challenged by Trump-backed candidates, five lost their reelection bids.
The ideological battle within the GOP came into focus early in Trump’s second term. Multiple Republican lawmakers, including onetime MAGA firebrand former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., either resigned or announced their retirement after breaking with the president.
Greene, who publicly fell out with the president over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, said in January that “MAGA purity tests and loyalty demands are going to cost the Republican Party votes.” She left Congress after Trump labeled her a “traitor” for criticizing his administration’s handling of the Epstein files and backed a GOP primary challenger in her district.
The president’s pattern of political retribution began in force following his departure from the White House in 2021, when he used his influence to oust prominent GOP incumbents who voted for his impeachment or conviction, including former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
On Saturday night in Louisiana after the polls have closed and the counting is done, Cassidy, one of three Republican senators remaining who voted to convict Trump, may find out whether he’s joining Cheney in early retirement.
Mychael Schnell and Syedah Asghar contributed to this report.
Adam Hudacek is a desk associate for MS NOW covering national politics in Washington, D.C.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — An Israeli airstrike in Gazakilled the leader of Hamas’ military wing who was one of the last surviving architects of the attacks that triggered the warin late 2023, the Israeli military said Saturday. Hamas confirmed the death.
Izz al-Din al-Haddad was killed on Friday, Israel’s army said, describing him as one of the senior Hamas military commanders who directed the planning and execution of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed around 1,200 people in southern Israel and saw more than 250 taken hostage.
A Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem, confirmed the killing on social media.
The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas remains fragile, and the top diplomat overseeing it says it has stalledbecause of the deadlock over disarming Hamas. Both sides have traded accusations of violations. Gaza has seen near-daily Israeli fire with more than 850 people killed in the Palestinian territory since the ceasefire went into effect in October, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The ministry is part of Gaza’s Hamas-run government, but staffed by medical professionals who maintain and publish detailed records viewed as generally reliable by the international community. The ministry overall says Israel’s retaliatory strikes in the war have devastated the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 72,700 people.
Israel said that al-Haddad had assumed the role of Hamas commander after his predecessor, Mohammed Sinwar, was killed. The army said that al-Haddad had surrounded himself with Israeli hostages during the war as a shield against an attack.
Al-Haddad’s family confirmed his death in Friday’s strike to The Associated Press. Six other people, including his wife and daughter, were also killed. His two sons were killed earlier in the war.
His body was wrapped in Hamas and Palestinian flags as it was carried by mourners at Saturday’s funeral in Gaza City.
Al-Haddad joined Hamas when it was established in the 1980s, and was a member of the Qassam Brigades’ Majd section tasked to go after collaborators with Israel. He was also a member of Hamas’ Military Council, the highest group of commanders that played a key role in the attacks that sparked the war.
Israel’s army chief of staff called his killing a significant operation, and said that Israel would continue pursuing its enemies to hold them accountable.
Palestinian man killed in West Bank
Violence flared Saturday in the occupied West Bankwhere Israeli troops shot and killed a 34-year-old Palestinian in the Jenin refugee camp, according to the Palestinian Health ministry.
Hassan Fayyad was fatally shot in a thigh, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israel’s military said that troops first fired warning shots at a person trying to infiltrate the camp and shot him when he didn’t comply. They provided him with medical treatment as he was transferred to a hospital, it said.
Israeli troops on Thursday shot and killed a 15-year-old boy in Eastern Lubban town in Nablus, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Israel’s military said that it identified three people hurling rocks toward Israeli vehicles and “endangering lives,” and troops fired at them, killing one.
On Friday, settlers set fire to a mosque and vehicles in the village of Jibiya, northwest of Ramallah, Palestinian religious authorities said. Security camera footage showed people pouring flammable material on the mosque and at least two vehicles, said Sabir Shalash, the head of Jibiya’s municipal council. Spray-painted Hebrew slogans were found on the mosque’s walls, he said.
The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs described the attack as “a cowardly terrorist act” and criticized the international community’s inaction over mounting Jewish settler attacks against Muslim and Christian sites in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military and police said that they were deployed to the area and didn’t locate any suspects, but were investigating. The army said that it “strongly condemns” attacks on religious institutions.
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