The White House - 1600 Daily: Meet the team that’s dismantling the illicit drug trade

President Donald J Trump, White House Chief

 of Staff John Kelly, and Secretary of Homeland 

Security Kirstjen Nielsen at the Joint Interagency

 Task Force South in Key West | April 19, 2018 

Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead 

The White House • April 20, 2018

Driving the Day 

Vice President Mike Pence will join Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao for a roundtable on infrastructure this afternoon. See the President’s plan. 

First Lady Melania Trump and President Donald J. Trump prepare to host French President Emmanuel Macron Tuesday for the first State Visit of the Trump Administration.

Today, Ivanka Trump and U.S. Treasurer Jovita Carranza travel to Rocky River, Ohio, for a town hall about wage hikes and boosted savings from President Trump’s tax cuts. 

Meet the team that’s dismantling the illicit drug trade 

President Trump visited the Joint Interagency Task Force South yesterday in Key West. The Task Force is a crucial team that many Americans have likely never heard about. Led by top officials from the Armed Services and key Federal agencies, its efforts to dismantle the illicit drug trade have saved countless American lives. 

The Task Force faced record drug production during Fiscal Year 2017. In response, it supported the removal of a record 283 metric tons of cocaine and 5 kilograms of heroin, as well as the detention of 900 suspected members of drug trafficking organizations. Helping to lead an international coalition, the Task Force oversees a staggering area of 42 million square miles across the globe. 


“We are behind you all the way,” President Trump said. “And we want to thank you.” The President called on Congressional Democrats to support the Task Force by closing loopholes that allow drugs and human traffickers to spill into the United States. “We need border protection; we need the wall,” he said.

President Trump visits the task force that saves American lives by fighting the flow of drugs.

‘Right from the beginning we hit it off’

The President concluded a productive summit with Japanese leader Shinzo Abe this week. It marked the sixth meeting and third major summit between the two men since President Trump took office. “Right from the beginning we hit it off,” the President said. “The relationship is a very good one.” 

Denuclearization of North Korea topped the agenda. With a meeting between President Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in the works, both the White House and Prime Minister Abe underscored that a global maximum pressure campaign on Pyongyang will continue until North Korea abandons all ballistic missiles and weapons of mass destruction. That point is nonnegotiable. 

American and Japan also agreed to intensify trade talks. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will lead discussions for the U.S. side, guided by the President’s goal of free, fair, and reciprocal trade with each of our allies. “The relationship has been so good with all of us, and let’s see how we do with, right now, the trade deficit,” President Trump told Prime Minister Abe. 

Watch the short highlight reel or read the full recap of this week’s summit at Mar-a-Lago.