What Trump asked the State Department to do (seems like back in Feb), was asking if we could put the cartels onto the terrorist list. If approved, then we would shift to hunt-down or terminate status, and that creates an entire new game. They’d go after the money, the bosses, and the drug-flow would go into chaos in a matter of just a hundred days.
This would also create a tit-for-tat situation, with US political figures likely targeted by the cartels. Not sure if the State Department will sign off on this idea.
>> put the cartels onto the terrorist list.
The drug trade is definitely something that should be factored into the equation. So many points of leverage.