Trump Is Ready to Invade U.S. Ally if It Doesn’t Cave to His Demands

The White House has authorized the Pentagon to use military force against Latin American drug cartels—but the sweeping directive also appears to violate the sovereignty of America’s southern neighbor.

Sources working in or with the Trump administration told Rolling Stone Thursday that the president is serious about attacking Mexico unless the nation gives Donald Trump “what he wants.” U.S. government officials just had one stipulation: Don’t refer to the intimidation campaign as an “invasion.”

“It’s not a negotiating tactic,” a senior administration official told the magazine. “It’s not Art of the Deal. The president has been clear that a strike … is coming unless we see some big, major changes.”

Trump and Republican leaders have long embraced the idea of invading Mexico, citing rising fentanyl rates and drug trafficking as sound reasons to put American boots on the ground. In January, Trump told reporters that the possibility of sending U.S. special ops across the border “could happen.”

Mexico’s compliance with Trump’s agenda has been complicated. Last week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to send troops across the border, though days later, the Mexican government extradited 26 alleged cartel members, including leaders from major gangs, to the U.S.

Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the moves as “historic efforts to dismantle cartels and foreign terrorist organizations.”

Cartel monitors who spoke with Rolling Stone claimed that Mexico’s compliance is an effort to “stave off” U.S. military intervention and “preserve ongoing trade negotiations.”

Mexico has not finalized its trade deal with the Trump administration. Late last month, Trump and Sheinbaum agreed to postpone a potential 30 percent tariff rate for another 90 days, but just how long it will take for the two countries to reach an agreement remains to be seen.

Historically, it takes U.S. officials roughly 18 months to negotiate a new trade agreement with another country. That boils down to exhaustive reviews of the country’s prior trade, sorting through thousands of line items of products, and analyzing the complex minutiae of local import and export laws.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is so desperate to look cool, they’ve gone full Pimp My Ride—at the taxpayer’s expense.

A cringey recruitment video released Thursday by the Department of Homeland Security featured cars—a Ford Raptor and GMC Yukon—with massive ICE logos plastered on the side, and the name of the president printed on the back window in gold. Some have compared the large decal lettering and red stripe to the old design for the president’s private jet, nicknamed “Trump Force One.” The video shows the bulky cars swerving through the streets of Washington, as DaBaby’s “Toes” plays in the background.

“My heart so cold I think I’m done with ice,” the rapper sings over the Trump administration’s latest gimmick to recruit young people to execute the president’s sweeping and inhumane deportation scheme.

A Bluesky account called Boycott Citizens Bank and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow with the American Immigration Council, posted several purchase orders for the cars featured in the video. The total cost for the cars alone was more than $380,000.

In reality, immigration enforcement vehicles aren’t quite so ostentatious—and that’s on purpose. U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles are white, featuring a large blue or green stripe. But ICE most frequently uses unmarked vehicles with dark tinted windows and no license plates, so as to operate with a low profile. Common models are a Ford Explorer, Chevy Tahoe, and Dodge Charger, according to the League of Latin American Citizens.

In recent weeks, ICE recruitment has gotten desperate as DHS officials have started reaching out to retirees, hoping to lure them back into the fray. Meanwhile, ICE has removed its age requirement and dropped its Spanish-language learning requirement in an obvious attempt to soften the qualifications for joining Donald Trump’s squad of extrajudicial thugs.

The true believers of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement are fuming over a New York Times report Friday, which reveals that a leaked draft of the White House MAHA Commission’s second report does not endorse directly restricting pesticides and ultraprocessed foods.

When the first report was published in May, Forbes’s Chloe Sorvino notes, many adherents of the MAHA movement championed by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. believed it “didn’t go far enough” in its 25 mentions of pesticides as potentially harmful to human health. At the same time, the report struck fear in the hearts of many in the agriculture industry.

Last month, ahead of the upcoming second report, the White House reportedly promised farm lobbyists that the administration would side with them over MAHA by refusing to restrict pesticide use. The Times report suggests that the White House delivered on that promise.

The news will be sure to upset the 500 people who signed onto a July letter, by the anti–Big Ag group United We Eat, urging Kennedy to ban pesticides. Some in MAHA land are already up in arms.

“Behold the power of Big Ag & Chemical Co’s,” Fox News’s Laura Ingraham wrote on X.

“Republicans in the pay of Big Food [and] Pharma are thwarting MAHA,” tweeted Jeffrey A. Tucker, a libertarian writer and president of the Brownstone Institute. “Keep it up and they will lose the midterms.”

Nutritionist Marion Nestle wrote this week that the second MAHA report will expose a faultline in Trump’s 2024 movement: “MAHA versus the realities of MAGA.” If the final report resembles the leaked draft, then it would seem that MAHA’s losing this fight.

In lieu of actually promoting peace, Donald Trump has reportedly resorted to begging for a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

The U.S. president phoned Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg “out of the blue” last month, hoping to discuss the possibility of acquiring the prestigious prize, as well as the state of tariffs, Norwegian business daily Dagens Næringsliv reported Thursday.

The newspaper cited unnamed sources regarding the previously unknown conversation, but Stoltenberg confirmed to Reuters that he had discussed tariffs and economic cooperation with Trump ahead of a separate call between the U.S. president and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Støre.

“I will not go into further detail about the content of the conversation,” Stoltenberg said in a statement to the newswire, noting that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer were also on the call.

Trump has complained multiple times over the years about his lack of a Nobel Peace Prize, whose honorees include some of the greatest figures of the last century, including Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Theresa, and Malala Yousafzai.

Four U.S. presidents, including former President Barack Obama, have received the award.

In June, Trump claimed responsibility for peace between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Rwanda, between India and Pakistan, between Serbia and Kosovo, between Egypt and Ethiopia, and for “doing the Abraham Accords.” He continued to lament his lack of recognition from the Norway-based panel of judges.

“No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be, but the people know, and that’s all that matters to me!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb are clapping back at a late-night attempt by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to unlawfully usurp the D.C. police chief. Their message: We’ll see you in court, President Trump.

Bondi on Thursday evening issued an order to install Terrance Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, as the “emergency police commissioner” of the Metropolitan Police Department “for the duration of the emergency” that President Trump invented from whole cloth in his federal takeover of the District. Bondi claimed Cole would have the authority to issue orders to members of the MPD—and that department leadership, from Chief Pamela Smith down, would have to receive his approval “before issuing any further directives” to its officers.

Bondi also rescinded an executive order Smith issued earlier that day, which allowed the MPD to coordinate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement but placed limits on the department’s assistance of ICE.

Schwalb on Friday sued the Trump administration in response. “By declaring a hostile takeover of MPD, the Administration is abusing its limited, temporary authority under the Home Rule Act, infringing on the District’s right to self-governance and putting the safety of DC residents and visitors at risk,” he said in a statement. “This is the gravest threat to Home Rule that the District has ever faced, and we are fighting to stop it.”

Late Thursday, Schwalb had issued an opinion stating that Bondi’s order was beyond the U.S. attorney general’s legal authority, arguing that the order is “unlawful, and that [Smith is] not legally obligated to follow it.” According to Schwalb, the Home Rule Act—which Trump is invoking (and testing the limits of) in his crackdown on the capital—does not grant the executive branch power to “remove or replace” the police chief, “alter the chain of command,” issue or rescind MPD orders or directives, or “otherwise determine how the District pursues purely local law enforcement.”

“You are the lawfully appointed Chief of Police,” Schwalb told Smith, and the police “must continue to follow your orders and not the orders of any official not appointed by the Mayor.”

Bowser shared Schwalb’s opinion on X, along with a statement. “We have followed the law,” she wrote. “In reference to the U.S. Attorney General’s order, there is no statute that conveys the District’s personnel authority to a federal official.”