On Chicago’s Morning Answer, Dan Proft spoke with foreign affairs columnist Daniel DePetris about the Trump administration’s stepped-up counternarcotics posture, a reported plan to relocate Gaza’s population under U.S. control, and the shifting diplomatic chessboard from Kyiv to New Delhi.
DePetris opened with the viral U.S. strike on a suspected Venezuelan drug boat and Sen. Marco Rubio’s vow of more to come. He called it naïve to think Washington can “kill its way out” of the cartels, arguing decades of supply-side crackdowns have produced at best brief lulls before traffickers adapt. He said the administration’s strategy remains opaque and overly focused on interdiction, urging a concurrent demand-side effort if officials want to “manage” rather than “win” an unwinnable drug war. Proft noted recent mega-seizures and floated the idea that Trump is shaking Mexico’s cartel-state collusion; DePetris acknowledged entrenched corruption but said it’s too early to claim structural change.
On the Middle East, DePetris criticized a reported White House concept to relocate Gaza’s two million residents and place the territory under U.S. administration for a decade. He said such a “Great Trust” would contradict Trump’s campaign promise to disentangle America from Middle East quagmires, entangle Washington in an unworkable trusteeship, and likely fail for lack of regional cooperation.
Turning to Ukraine, DePetris cast doubt on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ability to broker a cease-fire, calling him a willing facilitator with limited leverage over Vladimir Putin. India’s Narendra Modi, by contrast, does have economic leverage as a top buyer of Russian seaborne oil—but DePetris sees no indication Modi will curtail purchases, which would spike global prices and cut against India’s interests. On Europe, he deemed it plausible that Russia jammed GPS on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s plane—consistent with recent Russian sabotage and a reminder of Moscow’s risk tolerance as the war grinds on.
The segment closed with a lighter note on reports that Kim Jong Un travels with a personal toilet to prevent collection of his DNA. DePetris shrugged at the spectacle, calling it bizarre but not consequential.
Across theaters, his throughline was the same: flashy tactics and headline-grabbing ideas don’t substitute for coherent end-states and aligned incentives. Without those, he warned, Washington risks repeating cycles it already knows too well.