Trump’s Funding Freeze Creates Narco Dream at Mexico Border

Donald Trump’s freeze on foreign aid is hurting one of his major campaign promises: taking on fentanyl and ending overdose deaths from the drug in the U.S.

Reuters reports that a United Nations counternarcotics program that seeks to stop fentanyl chemicals from reaching Mexico’s drug cartels has been held up by Trump’s aid freeze, citing eight unnamed sources. The effort gave the Mexican navy training and equipment to boost screening at Mexico’s busiest container port, the Port of Manzanillo. Two more Mexican ports were supposed to be added to the initiative this month until funding was cut off.

The U.S. provided $800,000 in funding to launch the project in 2023 at the Port of Manzanillo, which is used heavily by Mexican drug cartels to sneak in Chinese chemicals used to help manufacture opioids and methamphetamine. Drug traffickers have also used cargo ships leaving the port to stash finished drugs headed overseas. More cargo scanners and drug-testing equipment were supposed to arrive at the Port of Manzanillo before the freeze as well.

Trump’s interruption of foreign aid has also hurt other U.S. anti-drug efforts in Mexico, including a program to train Mexican law enforcement to find and take down hidden fentanyl labs as well as donations of drug-sniffing dogs to the country.

While the Trump administration has scrambled to resume other anti-fentanyl programs with Mexico, including $7.8 million in funding for the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs “to counter production and trafficking of fentanyl and to dismantle terrorist criminal organizations,” the rest of the bureau’s $50 million in funding is frozen.

Last week, the Trump administration labeled 8 Latin American drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” as part of its efforts to combat drug trafficking and migrant smuggling, stepping up its military actions in Mexico as well. But Trump may soon find that counterterrorism mixed with tariffs threats is no replacement for badly needed aid.

“Stopping all these programs at this moment, I just don’t see how this is going to have a positive impact on reducing the numbers of fentanyl deaths in the U.S.,” a former State Department official, Enrique Roig, told Reuters.

President Donald Trump capped a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron Monday by writing a lengthy post on his social media platform—though details regarding a potential Ukraine-Russia peace deal didn’t just appear to favor Russia but also hinted at larger economic goals with America’s longtime adversary.

“Today, President Emmanuel Macron of France joined me in the Oval Office to speak to the G7 Summit,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The meeting was convened by Governor Justin Trudeau of Canada, the current chair of G7, to acknowledge the Third Anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine War—Which would have never started if I was President.”

Trump then went on to write that everyone in attendance at the meeting wanted to see an end to the war in Ukraine. Trump also noted that he “emphasized the importance” of the proposed “Critical Minerals and Rare-Earths Deal” between the United States and Ukraine, which would funnel half of the Eastern European nation’s rare earth minerals—hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of materials used in tech and electronic products—into the American market.

Trump has pitched the deal as a way for the U.S. to recoup financial and military assistance it provided to Ukraine, while Ukrainian officials see the trade arrangement as a way to solidify a long-term relationship with an increasingly Russian-friendly U.S. president.

Trump has previously and incorrectly claimed that the U.S. provided some $350 billion to Ukraine. In actuality, the U.S. has allocated $119 billion in Ukraine aid, according to the Kiel Institute, which has been tracking international financial assistance for Ukraine.

Still, Trump made it perfectly clear who the priority would be in the ongoing peace talks.

“At the same time, I am in serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia concerning the ending of the War, and also major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia,” Trump said. “Talks are proceeding very well!”

Real estate developer turned U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff spoke with Russian officials last week regarding a potential peace deal. While speaking about the meeting with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Trump’s longtime friend couldn’t detail one thing that Russia would actually have to compromise on in the arrangement.

Russian forces crossed the Ukrainian border on February 24, 2022, which Putin tried to justify by falsely claiming that he needed to protect civilians in eastern Ukraine.

The U.S. and Russia opened discussions at a meeting in Saudi Arabia last week, seeking a conclusion to the three-year war, but the assembly conspicuously excluded Ukrainian leadership.

While speaking at a NATO summit earlier this month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth explicitly outlined that the Trump administration’s peace talks with Russia had taken several bargaining chips “off the table.”

Those included Ukraine’s possible NATO membership (something the military alliance had promised in 2008), the possibility of a U.S. military presence in Ukraine to enforce postwar security guarantees, and the end of NATO missions to Ukraine. Hegseth also added that it would be “unrealistic” for Ukraine to return to its prewar borders, effectively ceding land to Moscow.

The announcement came as a complete 180 on American and NATO policy regarding the Eastern European country, and left U.S. allies and defense experts reeling. The deal, per Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, amounted to Russian propaganda and was practically “written in the Kremlin.”

Ron DeSantis is scrambling after Donald Trump upended his plans to make DeSantis’s wife his successor for governor of Florida with a single Truth Social post.

“I am hearing that Highly Respected Congressman Byron Donalds is considering running for Governor of Florida, a State that I love, and WON BIG in 2016, 2020, and 2024,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday. “I know Byron well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a TOTAL WINNER! ... As Governor, Byron would have a BIG Voice, and would work closely with me to advance our America First Agenda.… Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida and, should he decide to run, will have my Complete and Total Endorsement. RUN, BYRON, RUN!”

This ringing endorsement is an indirect rejection of DeSantis, with whom Donalds had a public feud after he endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 Republican primary. And it’s a direct rejection of DeSantis’s wife, Casey. 

​​“[Casey is] somebody that has, I think, the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles,” DeSantis told reporters on Monday. “Anything we’ve accomplished, she’d be able to take to the next level.”

He went on to take shots at Donalds. 

“The reality is we’ve achieved victories in Florida.… A guy like Byron, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the left over these last years,” DeSantis said. “He’s just not been a part of it. He’s been in other states campaigning doing that and that’s fine, but OK, then deliver results up there.” 

Shamed former attorney general nominee and Florida Republican Matt Gaetz chimed in on X: “Man it hurts me to see this [sad emoji]. Governor DeSantis, don’t you remember when you, @ByronDonalds and I were working collaboratively to get you elected in 2018?  We literally were your debate prep team.”

DeSantis has long tried to keep one foot in the MAGA pool and another in classic conservatism. That tightrope act may come to a head in 2028 as the GOP makes critical choices about its post-Trump future. 

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the White House on Monday, and during a press conference in the Oval Office, he was forced to correct President Trump on Ukraine.

Trump remarked that “Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back.” Macron immediately set the record straight, touching Trump’s arm as he explained the truth.

“No, in fact, to be frank. We paid. We paid 60 percent of the total effort, and it was through, like the U.S., loans, guarantee, grants, and we provided real money, to be clear,” Macron said.

Trump wasn’t satisfied with this explanation, and later said, “But they get their money back, we don’t, and now we do, but that’s only fair.”

Trump has attacked Ukraine in recent days, accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of being responsible for Russia’s invasion, enjoying a “gravy train” from the United States, and even calling him a “Dictator Without Elections.” Trump also held negotiations with Russia last week about ending the Ukraine war without representatives from Ukraine or the European Union.

The apparent shift in U.S. policy has caused alarm in Europe, with European leaders scrambling to adjust. Macron is partly traveling to the U.S. to convince Trump of the danger of Russia to Europe and to convince him to continue supporting Ukraine. Based on Monday’s press conference, it’s not clear if Macron will have much success.

The United States has refused to sign a U.N. resolution condemning Russia for its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, joining just 18 other countries voting “no.”

The denial of this resolution, titled “Advancing a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine” is the first time the United States has refused to support a U.N. measure brought forth by Ukraine. The resolution calls for “a de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine, marked by enormous destruction and human suffering, including among the civilian population, in line with the Charter of the United Nations and international law.”

The other countries opposing the resolution included Israel, Hungary, North Korea, and Russia.

“I would rather not explain it now, but it’s sort of self-evident I think,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked why the U.S. declined to support the resolution that all of Ukraine’s European allies supported wholeheartedly.

The Trump administration had instead posited its own version of the resolution, which called for an end to the war in Ukraine but conveniently omitted any mention of Putin or Russian aggression. That resolution failed to pass.

Trump is capitulating to Russia hard and fast. He blamed Ukraine for starting the war and called President Zelenskiy a “dictator without elections,” while refusing to call Putin one. And in a break from decades of presidential norms, he’s made it clear that he views the U.S.-Ukraine relationship as merely transactional, holding any further aid to the war-torn country hostage unless they give him access to valuable rare earths.