Early in his second term, Donald Trump’s State Department designated drug cartels as terrorist organizations. John Kiriakou says that at the time, this was widely understood inside the intelligence and defense community as essentially a paperwork exercise — a designation that would free up agencies such as the NSA and DIA to spend money on intercepting communications and training foreign nationals, spending that would otherwise require separate authorization.[1]
A justification for force
Kiriakou says the designation has since taken on a different, more consequential meaning in Trump’s own use of it: because Trump declared cartels — without ever naming a specific cartel — to be terrorist organizations, he believes this gives the U.S. government the right to attack any vessel Trump personally deems to be linked to a cartel.[2]