Trump Gives Himself Untold Power With Drug Cartel Declaration

The president who promised an “end to endless wars” just rekindled one—the war on drugs. 

The New York Times obtained a confidential memo sent to Congress this week that announced President Trump had “determined” that the U.S. is actively at war with drug cartels, which are now officially considered “nonstate armed groups.” The move comes after the Trump administration’s repeated strikes on what it claims were “drug boats” in the Caribbean.

“Based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of the United States and friendly foreign nations, the president determined that the United States is in a noninternational armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” read the notice. It contained no further specifics as to what groups will now be designated as terrorists.  

The obvious issue here is that the purposefully vague classification of “nonstate armed group” will allow the Trump administration to continue to administer unilateral, extrajudicial violence against whomever they see fit. The notice also stretches international law, which requires a “nonstate armed group to meet a certain threshold. Many drug cartels are more loosely tied groups of smugglers than they are organized and militant terror groups. But now the Trump administration has the language to justify treating them like it.   

“Not surprised that the administration may have settled on such a theory to legally backfill their operations,” former State Department lawyer and armed conflict law expert Brian Finucane told the Times. “I had speculated they might do so. One major problem, however, is that it is far from clear that whoever they are targeting is an organized armed group such that the U.S. could be in a noninternational armed conflict.” 

He also went on to describe Tren de Aragua, one of Trump’s favorite targets, as a “loosely organized cells of localized individual criminal networks” that was too “decentralized” to be treated as a nonstate armed group. 

This is far from the first time Trump has used wartime language to justify his version of the war on drugs. In March, President Trump used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—untouched since the War of 1812 and the Japanese internment of the 1940s—to push the deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans, claiming they were Tren de Aragua gang members whom we were “in a time of war” with. 

The first war on drugs was fought domestically against Black and brown citizens, with tactics like broken-windows policing and excessive criminal charges. Trump’s war on drugs will be defined by unilateral attacks on drug boats and violations of Mexican and South American countries’ sovereignty in the name of keeping Americans safe. But given the vague definitions outlined in the memo, this will likely lead to more violence, more surveillance, and more suffering for those Trump thinks we’re at war with.    

Five civil servants working at the Department of Education told NBC News that their out-of-office messages had been altered with political language blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.

The new message read: “Thank you for contacting me. On September 10, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse of appropriations, I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume,” NBC reported Thursday.

It may sound old-fashioned, but typically, civil servants don’t make political comments like that—at least ones who follow the Hatch Act, which forbids federal employees from engaging in certain political activities in their official capacities.

One Department of Education employee, speaking anonymously, said that they restored their out-of-office message to the original neutral version, only to have the partisan language added back. 

“None of us consented to this. And it’s written in the first-person, as if I’m the one conveying this message, and I’m not,” the person told NBC News. “I don’t agree with it. I don’t think it’s ethical or legal. I think it violates the Hatch Act.”

Another employee anonymously told NBC News that they’d used the standard out-of-office message that the agency had disseminated to them earlier this week. Even that was changed. “They went in and manipulated my out-of-office reply. I guess they’re now making us all guilty of violating the Hatch Act,” the person said. 

A third employee told NBC News that they weren’t surprised by the apparent violation of the Hatch Act, or concerned that they might face repercussions for political speech they hadn’t actually made. “Nobody follows the law anymore, so why does it matter? It seems like laws are dotted lines now, not solid lines. It seems there’s no one to hold this administration accountable to laws,” they said. 

“Clearly, this wasn’t done by me, it was done while I was in a furlough status, I think I’d be able to argue that point,” the employee added. 

The Trump administration issued multiple rounds of emails via executive agency heads this week containing ideological messaging to thousands of federal employees, in potential violation of the Hatch Act and the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch. Workers at the Treasury Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration received near-identical notes claiming that the Democrats had thwarted the Republicans’ continuing resolution due to “unrelated policy concerns.” In reality, Democrats had  been fighting to ensure health care subsidies. 

As desperate as Donald Trump has been to blame Democrats for the shutdown, it doesn’t seem that Americans are buying it. A recent poll found that roughly 47 percent of respondents blamed Republicans, while 30 percent said that Democrats were primarily responsible. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed said they were not sure who was primarily responsible for the shutdown.

A massive immigration raid at an apartment in the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago tormented residents in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Some 300 federal agents, per NewsNation, raided the building, arresting 37 people, with the Department of Homeland Security alleging that “some of the targeted subjects are believed to be involved in drug trafficking and distribution, weapons crimes, and immigration violators.”

Agents rappelled in from helicopters, broke down doors, used flash bangs, tore tenants from their units, and detained several people—including numerous U.S. citizens—for hours before leaving the building ravaged, according to multiple reports.

Pertissue Fisher, who lives in the building, told ABC7 Chicago that ICE agents forced everyone out and only asked questions later. Fisher said she was handcuffed and questioned before being released at around 3 a.m. The officers, she noted, “just treated us like we were nothing,” and, “It was scary, because I had never had a gun in my face.”

Another ABC7 interviewee ducked upon hearing flash bangs detonate, and was then distressed by the sight of children detained. “They was bringing the kids down too, had them zip-tied to each other,” she said. “That’s all I kept asking. What is the morality? Where’s the human? One of them literally laughed. He was standing right here. He said, ‘f*** them kids.’”

A witness of the same name told the Chicago Sun-Times it was “heartbreaking” to see “kids coming out buck naked and taken from their mothers.”

Witness Darrell Ballard recalled seeing the agents use a “big, 15-inch chain saw” to cut down a fence. “We’re under siege,” he said. “We’re being invaded by our own military.”

Resident Rodrick Johnson told Block Club Chicago that he heard “people dropping on the roof” before his door was kicked in by agents and he was packed into a van for what seemed like hours, without being told why he was detained.

“I asked [agents] why they were holding me if I was an American citizen, and they said I had to wait until they looked me up,” Johnson told the Sun-Times. “I asked if they had a warrant, and I asked for a lawyer. They never brought one.”

Agents also reportedly left tenants’ doors flung open. Resident Dan Jones, the Sun-Times reports, returned to his apartment “to find all of his electronics and furniture missing, and all of his clothes and shoes thrown on the floor.”

The following day, reports described the building’s hallways as strewn with “toys, shoes and food,” with doors “blown off their hinges” and “holes left in walls.” In one room, per Block Club Chicago, zip ties sat on the floor beside blood stains and baby shoes.

Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol commander-at-large, told NewsNation, which embedded with the federal agents for the operation, that it went “very smoothly.”

Donald Trump’s political associates don’t want immigrants to feel safe at the Super Bowl.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be in attendance at America’s most-watched annual television event, according to Corey Lewandowski, an adviser at the Department of Homeland Security. ICE confirmed they would be at the Santa Clara, California, event in a statement to TMZ Thursday.

Lewandowski cited Bad Bunny’s recently announced performance at the halftime show as part of the rationale for ICE’s presence, claiming that the Puerto Rican singer “hates America.”

“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” Lewandowski told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson Wednesday. “We will find you, we will apprehend you, we will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.

“That said, the NFL has been so woke for so many years, they finally decided to make a comeback. They finally had people stand up for our great national anthem,” Lewandowski continued, referring to protests that on-field players made nearly a decade ago while protesting police brutality. The NFL officially banned the practice in 2018. “I used to love watching NFL games.… When sports got into wokeness, I stopped doing it.”

“It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game,” Lewandowski said.

Lewandowski underscored that DHS intends to enforce Trump’s immigration goals at every event, regardless of the performer.

The NFL confirmed Sunday that Bad Bunny, a rapper-singer who has brought Puerto Rican music to radios around the world, would perform during the highly coveted music spot. The announcement came as a surprise to U.S.-based Bad Bunny fans: The three-time Grammy winner told i-D Magazine last month that he would be skipping America on his world tour out of fear of ICE attendance at his performances.

Lewandowski has been tied in to MAGA’s inner fold for years now. He served as Trump’s first campaign manager in the 2016 presidential race.

The Department of Homeland Security has been accused of posting an antisemitic dog-whistle to online trolls—and even if that wasn’t the post’s intention, it was certainly the result.

“‘Communist?” DENIED. ‘Terrorist?’ DENIED. ‘Globalist?’ DENIED,” said the post, which included a photograph of an AI-generated “Chad” in a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services hat, complete with Habsburg-like super chin and exceptionally developed trapezius muscles.

Beneath, the account included a link to sign up to be a so-called “Homeland Defender,” the latest in a pathetic series of ploys to attract deportation fanboys to work for the federal government.

Prominent liberal X user Will Stancil claimed that “globalist” was an intentional reference to Jewish people. “This is a smirkingly antisemitic post about Jews, and everyone involved in its creation knows that, as well as the intended audience,” he wrote.

The term “globalist” historically has been used by the far right to refer to a conspiracy theory that Jews control global events, but has more recently been co-opted by others on the right as an alternative to “nationalist.”

But the original meaning remains, and DHS’s latest post certainly caught the attention of the far right. The official account even engaged with users who responded with memes popularized by “groypers,” the followers of neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes.

“Are you TRYING to recruit me Homeland Security Account? Because you have my attention,” wrote one account, including a meme of Pepe the Frog, which has been added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols.

“You know you want to!” the DHS account replied.

Another user using the screen name “RAW EGG NATIONALIST” responded to the DHS’s post with an image of a man smoking a cigar, receiving a call from the “Based Department,” whose caller ID was an image of Pepe the Frog. The DHS account responded, urging the “Patriot” user to call the ICE tip line.

It has never felt more clear that the DHS Office of Public Affairs is staffed with terminally online right-wing trolls.

The GOP has gone fully mask-off as it brings the hammer of austerity down on Democratic voters as punishment for their senators not capitulating to Trump’s funding bill. 

“This is what they’re doing. They’re doing it deliberately, it’s going to harm [Democrats],” said Republican Senator Mike Lee, referring to Trump and OMB Director (and Project 2025 mastermind) Russell Vought ripping funding away from blue states, holding crucial projects hostage. 

“Because Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment—preparing this moment—since puberty,” the Utah senator continued. “Russ Vought has a plan, and that plan is going to succeed in further empowering Trump. This is gonna be the Democrats’ worst nightmare, and it’s of their own making.” 

While it might not have been his dream since puberty (although Vought is filled with enough spite to make that somewhat believable), this slash-and-burn retribution is absolutely all part of the plan.   

Trump and Vought have already frozen $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New Jersey and New York, and announced cuts to $8 billion in energy funding from 16 blue states as well. The pressure campaign seems to just be getting started. 

“Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier on Thursday. “And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple: Pass the clean continuing resolution, and all of this goes away.” 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made an eyebrow-raising claim about the soybean crisis on CNBC’s Squawk Box Thursday.

In recent years, China has consistently been the largest importer of U.S. soybeans, typically purchasing more than half of U.S. soybean exports. Last year, China bought $12.6 billion in American soybeans. But since May, that number has plunged to $0, as China has imposed retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans in response to Trump’s tariffs.

Trump effectively admitted that his trade war was harming American farmers in a Truth Social post Wednesday, in which he said soybean growers “are being hurt because China is, for ‘negotiating’ reasons only, not buying.” (He also unveiled a spin-off to his slogan “MAGA” that wouldn’t fit as easily on a baseball cap: “MAKE SOYBEANS, AND OTHER ROW CROPS, GREAT AGAIN!”)

On Squawk Box Thursday, Bessent blamed America’s ag trade woes on former President Joe Biden. “The Chinese followed through [on agricultural purchases] during President Trump’s term in 2020,” Bessent said. “And then, under President Biden, their feet were not held to the fire for these ag purchases.”

Bessent recalled a purported exchange with a Chinese delegation, led by the country’s top economic official, in May: “When I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you continue buying soybeans and the other products?’ they had one word. Guess what it was. ‘Biden.’”

The claim left the CNBC co-hosts momentarily speechless. “Biden,” Kernen repeated softly, before calling B.S. on Bessent using the former president’s own idiolect: “Well, that sounds like malarkey. Come on, man!”

During the Trump 1.0 years, soybean exports to China ranged from $3.12 billion at the lowest (during a 2018 trade war) to $14.07 billion at the highest in 2020. During Biden’s presidency, they were $17.92 billion at the highest in 2022 and $12.64 billion at the lowest last year.

Since halting U.S. soybean imports in May, China has turned instead to suppliers such as Argentina and Brazil.

No matter how aggressively the White House tries to frame Democrats for the government shutdown, the majority of Americans see Donald Trump and his allies as being at fault.

A new poll reveals that more Americans believe that the president and Republicans in Congress are to blame for the current partial shutdown, according to The Washington Post. The Post surveyed more than 1,000 Americans this week.

Roughly 47 percent of respondents said so, while 30 percent said that Democrats were primarily responsible. Twenty-three percent of those surveyed said they were not sure who was primarily responsible for the shutdown.

In an open-ended response format, some of those who blamed Republicans cited the party’s current grip on all branches of government and their inability to negotiate. Some of those who blamed Democrats believed that liberals have “untenable” or “unreasonable” requests for funding the government, while still others echoed false narratives that Democrats are trying to offer government-subsidized health care benefits to undocumented immigrants.

The understanding of who was at fault was, unsurprisingly, extraordinarily partisan. The majority of Republicans—some 67 percent of those that identified with the party—responded that Democrats were at fault, while an overwhelming majority of Democrats (87 percent) responded that Republicans were to blame.

The Washington Post noted that the results of the poll were comparable to past government shutdowns, with Republicans shouldering the bulk of the blame.

So far, the shutdown has furloughed more than half a million federal employees, according to a New York Times monitor. That includes 89 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency, 87 percent of the Education Department, and 71 percent of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The Trump administration has been crystal clear in blaming Democrats for the critical congressional failure this week. On Tuesday, it issued ideological messaging via executive agency heads to thousands of federal employees, in potential violation of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the Executive Branch and the Hatch Act. The near-identical notes were received by workers at the Treasury Department, Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration.

The White House website featured similar messages Wednesday. A banner atop the page reads: “Democrats have shut down the government,” followed by a timer tracking the amount of time it’s been since both parties failed to reach an agreement to continue funding the country.

A since-deleted animated banner above that read, “Democrat Shutdown: Democrats In Their Own Words.” That banner linked out to another White House page titled “Live News” that features a running feed of edited comments from top Democratic lawmakers about the continuing resolution. (The feed was not live, nor did it direct users toward news.)

The Trump administration is doubling down on its shutdown ultimatum to Democrats: Surrender to our backward austerity bill, or we’ll rip more funding and resources from the hands of your constituents.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked Thursday about Trump’s promise to work with Office of Management and Budget Director (and Project 2025 architect) Russ Vought to ax so-called “Democrat Agencies” in the government. “Is that real?” a Fox News host asked Leavitt. “Or is that a negotiating tactic?”

“Oh it’s very real. And the Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position,” Leavitt replied. “And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple: Pass the clean continuing resolution, and all of this goes away.”

This language reads like a hostage letter, and it essentially is. The Trump administration has already frozen $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New Jersey and New York, and announced cuts to $8 billion in energy funding from 16 blue states as well. The limits of this wanton retribution are unclear, as the Trump administration seems giddy to do real harm to American citizens and communities represented by Democrats who refuse to silently fall in line.

President Donald Trump’s new scheme to transform the federal government into a pharmacy is already raising red flags for legal and health experts.

Earlier this week, Trump announced the launch of TrumpRx, a strangely socialist-sounding service where consumers can procure cheap prescription drugs from the U.S. government—just days before Trump’s 100 percent tariff on pharmaceutical products is set to cause prices to skyrocket. Pfizer has agreed to provide prescription medicine through the purchasing platform at a “significant discount” of on average close to 50 percent, according to a press release from the company.

But not everyone is convinced.

Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University, told Mandatory that TrumpRx was “more of a gimmick” to make drug companies happy. In reality, the site is likely “not going to help the average person” who purchases medications through their insurance. Even with the discounts, prescriptions could still cost thousands of dollars, likely much higher than a typical insurance co-pay.

The White House did not clarify how exactly prices would be determined, and Pfizer’s press release noted that the “specific terms of the agreement remain confidential.”

It’s not just consumers who would be sold short. Independent pharmacists have voiced concerns that the service could hurt their businesses. And The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board excoriated Trump’s move Wednesday as “political extortion” of drug companies, threatening them with gargantuan tariffs if they failed to cut a deal with his administration.

Eliza Orlins, a career public defender and former candidate for Manhattan district attorney who produces social media news explainers, posted a video Wednesday in which she begged her followers not to enter their personal information into the TrumpRx website. “This is one of the scariest things I’ve seen in 2025—and that’s saying a lot,” she said.

“In order to use the site, you’d have to tell the government exactly what medications you take, what conditions you have, when you refill them,” she explained, noting, “And the White House hasn’t said data they collect, how it will be stored, who gets access, or what happens when the program ends.”

Orlins argued that the discount Trump had promised came at a cost. “That cost is your privacy. Because once you hand over this information, it is theirs forever, and you will never know where it went,” she said.

The Trump administration has a history of playing it fast and loose with Americans’ private information. In August, a whistleblower revealed that DOGE employees had uploaded a copy of a Social Security database onto a cloud server, making the information vulnerable to leaks and hackers. It could also be unwise to let the government know your medical information considering the administration’s attitudes about vaccines and antidepressants.