President Donald Trump said his administration has sharply reduced the flow of illegal drugs into the United States through maritime routes and is preparing to intensify enforcement efforts along land corridors, while placing blame on drug cartels he said are operating with control over Mexico.

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“She’s scared of the cartels.” “We’re gonna have to do something. WE’D LOVE Mexico to do it!” Trump is playing NO games! pic.twitter.com/sBGmtY46DI — Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 5, 2026

Trump made the remarks while discussing border security and drug enforcement, saying his administration has already achieved major gains by targeting water-based smuggling operations.

“We've knocked out 97% of the drugs coming in by water, and we are going to start now hitting land,” Trump said.

Trump said drug cartels are responsible for widespread violence and instability, both in Mexico and in the United States, asserting that criminal organizations exert control over large parts of Mexico.

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“With regard to the cartels, the cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said.

“It's very, very sad to watch and see what's happened to that country, but the cartels are running, and they're killing 250-300,000 people in our country every single year, the drugs, it's horrible.”

Trump said drug-related deaths have had devastating effects on American families, describing the toll in terms of lives lost across generations.

“It's devastating. Families generally lose a child or a parent,” Trump said.

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“I mean, parents are dying too with drugs.”

Image Credit: © Jay Janner/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Trump said his administration’s approach has produced measurable results, both in reducing drug inflows and improving border enforcement overall.

“So we've done a really good job. We're knocking it down,” Trump said.

“The numbers are really getting to be they're always going to be too high if you have one person, but they're going down just like the border.”

Trump compared the current state of border enforcement to conditions he said existed before his administration took action, describing the border as severely compromised.

“The border was a total mess for years,” Trump said.

“I did it the first time very quickly, and this time I did it even better, because this was a bigger mess.”

Trump said the level of illegal entry during that period was unprecedented.

“This was a border like no other,” Trump said.

“Probably in the history of the world, there's never been a border like that when anybody could just walk into your country.”

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