Trump promises to launch anti-drug campaign and designate Mexican cartels as terrorists

(Patria) - Newly elected US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he will launch a new anti-drug advertising campaign to show the physical effects of taking drugs like fentanyl and reiterated his threat to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations, Reuters reported.

"We are going to advertise how bad drugs are for you. They ruin your looks, they ruin your face, they ruin your skin, they ruin your teeth," Trump said at a conference of the conservative group Turning Point in Phoenix, Arizona.

Trump gave few specific details about the advertising campaign, which he did not seem to have mentioned before and which he compared to running a political campaign. He said his administration would spend "a lot of money" on the program, but it would be "relatively a very small amount of money".

Trump's plan echoes the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign, led by former Republican First Lady Nancy Reagan in the 1980s to encourage young Americans to reject drugs. Between 50,000 and 60,000 Americans are expected to die from synthetic opioid overdoses this year, most from taking fentanyl or related drugs.

The fentanyl crisis was largely represented in Trump's 2024 presidential campaign, although deaths from synthetic opioids more than doubled under his administration from 2017 to 2021.

Trump also revived a campaign promise on Sunday to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups.

"I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations," he said.

While in office in 2019, Trump postponed such a plan at the request of then-Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said he wanted US cooperation in fighting drug gangs, not intervention.

Some US officials also privately expressed doubts that the measure could harm relations with Mexico and hinder the Mexican government's fight against drug trafficking.

Trump's official campaign platform states that when he takes office, he will order the Pentagon to use "special forces, cyber warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations".