Pro Trump Ohio Sen. JD Vance supports Ron DeSantis’ proposal to use deadly force at the border

Ohio Senator JD Vance said he agrees with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s proposal to use deadly force at the border.

The pro-Trump senator said during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday morning that he would like to “empower” the president to use the US military to attack drug cartels and smugglers on the southern border.

“You think the fentanyl problem is bad now, what about three years from now when the Mexican drug cartels are more powerful than the Mexican state itself?” asked Vance when talking to host Chuck Todd.

The comments come after presidential hopeful DeSantis said Monday during the unveiling of his proposal to handle the southern border crisis from Eagle Pass, Texas, that he would use “lethal force” to combat the flow of drugs from Mexico into the US.

Vance says he supports this plan, even though he has already endorsed Trump in his third bid for the White House.

“I would authorize the President of the United States — whether Republican or Democrat — to use the power of the United States military to go after these drug cartels,” he said.

He also warned that if the drug crisis continues on its current track, Mexico could become a “failed state” like Colombia.

‘[Cartel] sales per year have increased 14-fold in the last few years alone,” said Vance. “That shows you, I think, what bad border policies can do.”

“The Mexican government is being destabilized in many ways by the constant flow of fentanyl.”

DeSantis said Monday the best way to deter cartels is to take down coyotes and smugglers and make it clear that they will be punished violently if they violate US laws.

“If you drop some of these cartel agents, they won’t come again,” DeSantis said at a press conference off the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas, last week.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said Monday during a campaign stop in Eagle Pass, Texas, that he would use “lethal force” at the border against cartels and smugglers

DeSantis has repeatedly targeted former President Donald Trump for breaking promises he made during his campaign when he took office, such as building a wall along the entire southern border.

The presidential candidate has now visited the southern border twice since announcing his campaign a month ago, underlining the importance the governor attaches to the migration and drug crisis.

“I was in Arizona the other day, and you know, you have like walls and it just stops,” DeSantis explained at a Texas voter campaign event. “The cartel guy just hangs out where it stops and beckons people to go there.”

“So if you only have one piece, I mean, you have to finish the job, and you have a lot more to do on that,” the Florida governor insisted.

Speaking to reporters at a popular border crossing in Eagle Pass, Texas on Monday, DeSantis said that as president on day one he would reverse all executive orders issued by President Joe Biden that allowed migrants to cross the southern border.

“On January 20, 2025, we have a new sheriff in town,” he told Fox News.