Hegseth on Fentanyl, Narco-Terrorists, and America’s Response: ‘It’s Self-Defense’

Since President Donald Trump returned to office in January, his administration has taken a number of decisive actions to reduce the flow of illicit fentanyl into America and eliminate the devastation it wreaks on communities and families.

First came orders to end “open border” policies, soon followed by a 20% tariff on China—the primary provider of illicit precursor chemicals—and the designation of cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Each of these moves represents a fundamental change from Biden-era policies—and though originally met with a mixture of doubt or criticism, they’ve been implemented over the course of this year, in some cases with dramatic results.

Thanks to Trump ending open borders, Illegal crossings at the southwest border have decreased from a flood to a trickle.

Meanwhile, the 20% tariff on China remained in place for eight months, likely playing a role in Chairman Xi Jinping’s pledge to take much more aggressive domestic enforcement action. Trump responded by cutting the tariff in half, presumably to snap back if Xi fails to deliver.

Perhaps the most controversial of Trump’s actions is his use of military force at sea to destroy vessels identified as transporting fentanyl or other narcotics. In just the last two months, at least 13 strikes have targeted 15 vessels, resulting in 61 confirmed deaths, two captured and repatriated survivors, and one missing person.

Given that the cartels are now designated foreign terrorist organizations, it would seem to follow that extreme measures would be justified to guard against their smuggling lethal chemicals into the United States—chemicals whose fatality statistics are comparable to war casualties.

However, not all senators agree. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., described recent actions as “extrajudicial killings” without evidence and akin to authoritarian regimes. Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., called the strikes “sanctioned murder” without proper process.

While traveling in Asia with Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, The Daily Signal asked the secretary to share his rationale and address these provocative criticisms.

Hegseth opened by describing recent military actions as “rooted in the fact that President Trump has a heart for all those families and all those Americans who’ve been affected by the drug trade. He really does. When you hear him, it’s personal for him. He’s met the families. He’s seen the communities.”

“Whether it’s flooding across the border or coming on the maritime route he asks, why are we accepting this status quo? Why are we allowing foreign countries to smuggle precursors? Why are we allowing transnational cartels, narco-terrorists, to trade across our border? Why would we allow these same narco-terrorists access to sea lanes to deliver those drugs to the American people?

“The rationale is pretty bright and simple. It’s self-defense … defense of the American people. We have been poisoned, our kids have been poisoned, our communities have been poisoned, and we’ve allowed it to happen, because for some reason, we were not willing to look holistically or seriously at the problem.

“There’s been plenty of administrations that have interdicted vessels at sea, boarded them, grabbed the drugs, played the game, played it for years, played it for decades, but nothing really changes … and we all go along pretending like we’re addressing the problem. President Trump has said, on my watch, we will not allow these narco-terrorists to operate with impunity in our hemisphere.

“We know, on behalf of the self-defense of the American people, we have the authorities to strike these narco-terrorists in international waters … It’s not something we’ve done flippantly. It’s not extrajudicial. We’ve got a lot of lawyers and a lot of process that’s looking at the who and the why, and we’re working with Congress to make sure they have that information.

“If you see how and why we gather the information about who we target, it’s very deliberate. We know exactly who these guys are. I’m very proud of the strikes that we are taking. We hope it changes the dynamic in the hemisphere and that it saves lives. That’s the point. Saving American lives. That’s the point the President always talks about. This is about America and America first.”

Hegseth then drew a comparison between the previous generation’s “war on terror” and the narco-terrorists of today.

“These cartels, they terrorize, they extort, they rape, thy kill. They are terrorists. So you designate them, which we have done, as foreign terrorist organizations. That puts them in the category of al-Qaeda or ISIS. Do we negotiate with al-Qaeda or ISIS? Do we treat them like civilians when they are delivering precursors of death? No, we don’t. So, we give them an option to get out of this business because America’s serious about it.

“As I’ve said before, nobody tracks, hunts, finds networks of international terrorists better than the United States of America. And so, to these narco-terrorists, if they think we’re not looking or we don’t know, we’ve just gotten started. Wait until we truly map every aspect of your web.”

When asked whether illicit fentanyl precursor chemicals should be considered weapons of mass destruction—a designation that would extend the terrorist analogy further—Hegseth responded, “It’s a good idea. We haven’t done that yet, but it’s worth a look.”

Indeed.

Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost and millions of others adversely affected by the scourge of illicit fentanyl. The network conveying this angel of death is terrorizing American families and communities, and the poison these terrorists carry has the effect of a mass casualty chemical weapon. At least, that’s the opinion of this author—a father who lost his beloved daughter to fentanyl poisoning on this date in 2023.

On behalf of the countless others on this journey of grief and recovery, I say thank you to Trump and Hegseth for taking necessary actions to save others from the same fate.

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