Trump signs counterterrorism strategy prioritizing Western Hemisphere drug cartels

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President Donald Trump signed off on a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy that elevates the fight against drug cartels in the Western Hemisphere to the administration’s top priority, according to a White House announcement Wednesday. The strategy, described as a 16-page document, positions cartel targeting as a central component of how the United States plans to confront threats to U.S. security.

Trump wrote in the document that his administration would not “let cartels, Jihadists, or the governments who support them plot against our citizens with impunity.” He added that “Terrorists of any kind will not be allowed to find safe harbor here at home or attack us from abroad,” framing the plan around both illicit networks and broader state support for those networks.

White House counterterrorism czar Sebastian Gorka said the priority shift reflects what he described as straightforward arithmetic about the scale of the threat. In remarks to reporters by telephone to announce the strategy, Gorka said far more Americans have been killed by cartels pushing illicit drugs into U.S. communities than Americans have died in conflicts worldwide since World War II.

Gorka said the strategy’s approach includes both efforts to “strangl[e]” cartels’ illicit finances and to track cartel-operated drug boats. He said those steps reflect the administration’s decision that cartels should not be permitted to kill Americans “on a massive scale,” linking the planning directly to lethal impact in U.S. communities.

The White House said the strategy’s emphasis on the hemisphere comes after Trump’s administration released an updated national security strategy that called for the region to be the top U.S. focus. The new document is presented as part of a continuing effort to demonstrate what the White House calls a sustained commitment to keeping foreign-policy attention on Western Hemisphere threats, even as the administration deals with crises elsewhere.

According to the White House, Trump’s administration has worked to reshape regional dynamics in parallel with the strategy. The White House said that efforts include pushing for the ouster of Nicolás Maduro as Venezuela’s president, conducting dozens of U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats operated by cartels, and increasing pressure on Cuba’s communist government.

The White House also said the administration’s counterterrorism posture includes additional priorities beyond cartels. It cited targeting and destroying Islamic military groups that it says have capabilities to execute operations against the United States, and identifying and neutralizing violent secular political groups with ideology the administration describes as anti-American, radically pro-transgender, or anarchist.

Gorka also said the strategy includes boosting efforts to prevent nonstate actors from obtaining weapons of mass destruction. He said administration officials would meet with allies later this week to discuss how they can bolster their counterterrorism strategies, and told reporters that the administration will measure partner cooperation by “how much you bring to the table.”

“As the president made very clear, we will measure your seriousness as a partner and ally by how much you bring to the table,” Gorka said. “So we expect more — from our partners in the Middle East, as well as elsewhere.”