The President's Daily Brief
February 11th, 2025: U.S. Spy Planes Target Drug Cartels & Trump Announces New Tariffs
11 Feb 2025
In this episode of The President’s Daily Brief: The U.S. military has ramped up surveillance of Mexican drug cartels, with nearly 20 spy plane flights in the past two weeks. Is this just intelligence-gathering for Mexico’s military, or is something bigger in the works? President Trump reignites a trade battle from his first term, announcing plans to impose a 25% tariff on aluminum and steel imports. As the ceasefire in Gaza faces new obstacles, the IDF targets Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, raising tensions along its northern border. And in The Back of the Brief, President Trump escalates his crackdown on former officials, revoking security clearances for key members of the previous administration—and signaling that more could be on the way. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The President's Daily Brief. YouTube: youtube.com/@presidentsdailybrief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
It's Tuesday, 11 February. Welcome to the President's Daily Brief. I'm Mike Baker. Your eyes and ears on the world stage. All right, let's get briefed. Today, we'll begin with reports that the U.S. military has ramped up its surveillance of Mexican drug cartels with spy planes conducting nearly 20 flights in the past two weeks.
Later in the show, President Trump reignites a trade battle from his first term, announcing his plans to impose a 25% tariff on aluminum and steel imports. Plus, as the ceasefire in Gaza faces new obstacles, the IDF hits Hezbollah sites in Lebanon, threatening the fragile peace along its northern border.
And in the back of the brief, President Trump escalates his crackdown on former Biden administration officials, revoking security clearances for key members of the previous administration and signaling that more could be on the way. But first, today's PDB Spotlight. In a move that's likely to send a shiver down the spine of cartel leaders, at least if they're paying attention, the U.S.
military has significantly increased its surveillance operations along the southern border and beyond. Over the past two weeks, American spy planes have conducted at least 18 missions, and that's a dramatic increase as the Pentagon has historically flown only about, well, one surveillance mission a month around the U.S.-Mexico border.
Among the aircraft spotted, Navy P-8 Poseidons, Air Force RC-135 rivet joints, and even a U-2, a U-2, a legendary high-altitude reconnaissance plane designed during the Cold War. Now, the P-8s, typically used for anti-submarine warfare, are equipped with powerful radar systems capable of tracking movements on land as well as at sea.
The RC-135, well, that specializes in signals intelligence, intercepting communications from the ground, potentially including cartel radio chatter and encrypted messaging. Meanwhile, the U-2, with its ability to fly above approximately 70,000 feet, can capture high-resolution imagery of vast areas, providing an unmatched bird's-eye view of cartel strongholds and trafficking routes.
Their mission? Well, their mission is pretty straightforward. Gathering a range of intelligence, signals, imagery, and movement data on cartel activity, far beyond what traditional law enforcement surveillance can achieve. These flights have spanned Texas, Arizona, and California, with some even looping around Mexico's Baja Peninsula and passing near cartel strongholds like Sinaloa.
Former military officials note that while the U.S. has long conducted aerial surveillance along the border, the current intensity is unprecedented. So the big question, what is the intelligence gathering for? One possibility, the U.S. is gathering intel to pass along to the Mexican military, helping them to target cartel operations.
That would make sense from a joint liaison military operation perspective. As we reported here on the PDB, 10,000 Mexican troops have been deployed to the border in recent days as part of what they've dubbed Operation Frontera Norte or Operation Northern Border.
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