As the last Cabinet meeting of the year wound down, President Trump dramatically expanded his doctrine for the Western Hemisphere: Any nation producing drugs, and shipping them to American streets, “is subject to attack.”

On the campaign trail, President Trump vowed to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and go after them with the full might of the U.S. military. He has kept his word. He has not, however, gone to Congress for an official declaration of war as mandated by the Constitution.

The State Department is disputing reports that President Trump’s foreign aid freeze has halted a United Nations program in Mexico designed to prevent imported fentanyl chemicals and other narcotics precursors from reaching the country’s drug cartels.