This article by Jim Cason and David Brooks originally appeared in the December 16, 2025 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.
Washington and New York. US President Donald Trump yesterday designated fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction” and revived a military decoration – originally created to recognize US service members who fought against Pancho Villa’s forces – to award it now to troops “defending” the border with Mexico from drug traffickers and immigrants.
In a ceremony and press conference at the White House, criticized as a strategy designed to distract public attention from the president’s plummeting approval ratings and his failure to deliver on his promise to lower consumer prices and make the cost of living more affordable, the commander-in-chief signed an executive order declaring the opioid fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction.”
He stated that “no bomb causes the damage this is doing: between 200,000 and 300,000 people die each year, as far as we know.” However, official figures on overdose deaths from the aforementioned drug, issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are between 70,000 and 80,000 annually.
The executive order signed by Trump states that “the potential for fentanyl to be weaponized for large-scale, concentrated terror attacks by organized adversaries is a serious threat to the United States.” Although Mexico is not mentioned by name in the document, it does identify “two cartels that are predominantly responsible for the distribution of the substance in the United States.”
During the ceremony for the signing of the order, which was attended by the Chief of Staff, the Secretary of War, the Attorney General, the head of Northern Command, the administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the border czar, the president declared that “our entire southwest border on the Mexican side is under the physical control of the cartels, which are among the most violent entities.”
After claiming that his administration has succeeded in ending shipments of illicit drugs to the United States by sea, Trump repeated his threat to begin attacking drug traffickers “on land” in other countries (although in this context he did not mention Mexico by name).
“These are a direct military threat to the United States. They are trying to drug our country,” the president stated. “There is no doubt that our adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into our territory in part because they want to kill Americans.”
Anti-Mexico medal
Reviving Memories of the Centaur of the North
Next came the presentation of what is called the Mexican Border Defense Medal. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth explained: “We are reviving an old medal. Our men and women will be wearing the same medal that Americans wore 100 years ago, who were called upon to defend our country’s sovereignty.”
The Mexican Border Defense Medal is an exact replica of the original that was designated by Congress in 1918 for U.S. military troops who fought against Pancho Villa’s “paramilitary forces” during the Mexican Revolution in 1916 and 1917, the War Department proudly reported (with some details resulting from an investigation by La Jornada).
Hegseth and other military officials proceeded to award the Mexican Border Defense Medal to 13 members of the armed forces selected as the first recipients of the honor. “They all represent some 2,000 people who have served in the border region so far. So, some 25,000 Americans qualify for this medal that we are announcing today,” he concluded.
But these decorated military personnel were more of a photographic backdrop for the commander-in-chief; after receiving their medals, Trump asked the service members to stand around the presidential desk for a photograph.
Cascade of Praise
As is customary, each of the speakers, from the Secretary of War on down, began their remarks by thanking their boss and praising his accomplishments. “It is always an honor for me to be in the Oval Office with the greatest president I have ever lived to be with,” declared Border Czar Tom Homan.
He also acknowledged the White House deputy chief of staff and principal architect of Washington’s anti-immigrant strategy. “Steve Miller is one of the most brilliant people I have met in my career.”
The President made the purpose of this ceremony clear. “People are forgetting now that the border has been secure for seven months. They don’t mention it anymore. Nobody talks about the border area,” he said in comments that were somewhere between self-praise and complaint.
“They talk about affordability,” and in response to this and against the available official evidence, he insisted that his government is succeeding in reducing prices and that, in any case, inflation and the costs that continue to rise are consequences of the previous president, Joe Biden, and his Democrats.
In a statement about the event, the White House said that on the border with Mexico the Trump administration “has restored order, deterred illegal entry, and protected American communities from the threats posed by uncontrolled immigration, transnational crime and fentanyl trafficking.”
But apparently they have not yet managed to capture Villa.
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News Briefs
December 16, 2025
The US President also revived a military medal originally created to recognize US soldiers who fought against Pancho Villa’s forces, to be awarded to troops “defending” the border with Mexico.
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President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference, with comments on FDI, water law, childcare, public security, electoral reform, and federal attorney general.
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The reform establishes that these crimes will be prosecuted ex officio and that aggressors must attend re-education workshops.
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