As a tool, tariffs may not be to everyone's taste, but they are a very effective policy instrument in President Trump's hands.

Trump knows how to use them.

Which is why we see this in Mexico, according to Border Report:

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A Mexican Senate commission has approved the entry of members of the U.S. Army’s 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne) into the country starting this week.

The Americans will come fully armed as part of a mission to train the Mexican Navy’s Infantería de Marina (marine infantry) on conventional and non-conventional types of combat.

The training takes place from Feb. 17 through March 30 at the Luis Carpizo naval facility in the state of Campeche, according to Sen. Alejandro Moreno Cardenas, president of the Mexican Senate’s Naval Ministry Commission.

That's a dramatic change from previous hesitant attitudes towards hosting U.S. troops on Mexican soil. The Mexican War that ended in 1848, and the Pershing expeditions of the early 20th century pretty well have made it a no-go idea in most Mexican power circles until recently.

But that was before President Trump, who seems to have persuaded Mexico's leftist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, to go along with the idea and take it to her country's legislature, which gave the A-O.K. by a unanimous vote. That was an impressive persuasion.

Border Report says it was because of the threat of tariffs:

Sheinbaum and President Donald Trump earlier this month reached a deal to postpone crushing 25% tariffs on Mexican exports to the United States in exchange for Mexico stepping up its fight against the drug cartels flooding America with the deadly illicit drug fentanyl.

Mexico, which has the U.S. as its top trading partner, really, really, really doesn't want President Trump to impose those threatened 25% tariffs, and Trump has been effective in securing a deal to ensure that they not be.

But it was probably more than tariffs that made Mexico's left-wing leaders amenable to the idea.

According to Latin Times:

In fact, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth warned earlier this month that the U.S. reserves the right to move against cartels in Mexico if the Trump administration believes the country is not doing enough on its end.

"We want them to secure their own territory and sovereignty, but we reserve the right – should there not be an ability to police international and violent cartels – to protect our own sovereignty as well. We hope Mexico will step up. We expect they will," Hegseth said.

Asked for specifics, Hegseth said it would be "silly" to tip his hand, according to Border Report. He added that troops' current mission lies in curbing unlawful immigration into the country.

Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, echoed the message, saying reining in on cartels would be "a great gift for the country of Mexico." Homan said such an outcome would mean "less journalists assassinated, less judges, less politicians being assassinated." "It would be a much safer country. That would be historic," he added.

Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office moving toward designating Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups as foreign terrorist organizations.

That must have concentrated their minds.

It would be interesting to know what kind of conversations went on in the Mexican embassy in Washington when this sort of talk dribbled out.

It's telling that the Green Berets are going to be training Mexico's naval infantry, or marines. Those troops tend to be saved for special missions because Mexico City believes the army and police forces are riddled with cartel informants, but these naval troops are special, viewed as far more aloof and untainted by such problems.

It's not the first time the Green Berets have gone in to train -- it's been reported that there were 11 such missions, but I don't recall of hearing any on Joe Biden's watch  -- it's most likely that they occurred under President Trump's first term, with no problems reported.

Obviously, Trump has put the hammer to them, skillfully putting the cartels on the terrorism list, as leverage to get the cooperation from Mexico that the U.S. needs on drugs and illegal migrants flowing over the border.

Mexico's cartels -- about five or six were named to the bad list -- may not seem to be terrorists the way Hamas is, but as utterly depraved criminals, they are organized the same way big terrorist organizations are, and both are narco-trafficking organizations, as I recall Israeli terrorism expert Rachel Ehrenfeld once told me. All terrorism is narcoterrorism, she said, which would justify putting them on the list.

Training Mexico's best troops with the Green Berets in order to battle cartels isn't the only activity seen to eradicate the migrant-trafficking cartels.

Border Report noted that Mexico seems to be allowing U.S. surveillance missions close to the Baja and Mexican riviera coasts, too:

Mexican news media, however, earlier this month reported the presence of an alleged American spy plane off the coasts of Baja California and possibly Sinaloa. The Mexican government denied any unauthorized air incursions.

Stewart said the Mexican government may have allowed the presence of such an airplane so it could pass on intelligence to its law enforcement agencies.

“That may be an attempt to increase signals intelligence – that plane is a vacuum, it sucks up all communications – but I think it would be intelligence to pass to the Mexican marines and not necessarily in preparation for a U.S. airstrike or something,” Stewart said.

That suggests seriousness of purpose, and hopes that the training is going to lead somewhere, not just amount to training. It may well be that after a decade of doing very little to battle Mexico's cartels, (other than "hugs," as Mexico's previous president described his anti-cartel mission), the Mexican government has been goaded into taking them seriously.

That would be a huge gift to the people of northern Mexico, who suffer the most from cartel violence.

What a gift that would be to what Mexico City contemptuously refers to as the carne asada belt up north, which is Mexico's most economically productive region.

MAGA's reach has potential to benefit quite a bit more than just the U.S. if all goes well with this unprecedented will to action. Trump is getting results.

Image: Defense Visual Information Distribution Service Public Domain Archive // public domain