Trump's counterterrorism strategy makes targeting drug cartels the top priority

Sebastian Gorka listens as President Donald Trump speaks with reporters after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House, April 23, 2025, in Washington. Alex Brandon/AP hide caption toggle caption Alex Brandon/AP WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has signed off on a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy that sets eliminating drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere as the administration's highest priority, the White House announced Wednesday. The document was released months after his administration published an updated national security strategy that called for the hemisphere to be the top U.S. focus. "We will not let cartels, Jihadists, or the governments who support them plot against our citizens with impunity. Terrorists of any kind will not be allowed to find safe harbor here at home or attack us from abroad," Trump wrote in the 16-page document. Trump's administration has moved aggressively to reshape the region with the ouster of Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela's president, dozens of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats operated by cartels and new pressure on the communist government of Cuba. Sebastian Gorka, the White House counterterrorism czar who spearheaded the new strategy, said the shift in priorities acknowledges some simple math: Far more Americans have been killed by cartels pushing illicit drugs into U.S. communities than American service members lost in conflicts around the globe since World War II, he said. …