DNI Gabbard Reveals Little Known Fact About Trump’s Border Effort
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Saturday that the Trump administration’s capture of a top Mexican cartel leader proves President Donald J. Trump’s unwavering resolve to confront violent organized crime and restore law and order at the southern border.
Appearing on Fox & Friends Weekend, Gabbard confirmed that on October 15, U.S. and Mexican authorities apprehended Leonardo Daniel “El Pato” Martinez Vera — a plaza boss for the Sinaloa Cartel accused of brutal crimes including kidnapping and murder.
According to Gabbard’s office, the arrest was carried out through intelligence gathered by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC).
When host Griff Jenkins asked whether the operation sent a broader message, Gabbard didn’t hold back.
“Yes, it’s very significant. This operation — I would love to tell you about how it was carried out,” she said. “Because our folks, who are working now without pay because of the Democrats’ government shutdown, worked tirelessly to get this guy arrested and behind bars, but also the public messaging that we did on behalf of President Trump shows his seriousness.”
Her comments came just days after nearly every Senate Democrat voted to block a bill that would have provided temporary pay to federal employees and U.S. service members during the ongoing Democrat-caused shutdown — which entered its 25th day on Saturday.
Gabbard credited the President’s strong stance for ensuring the captured drug lord remains detained.
“And this actually played an integral role in his [El Pato’s] continuing to be behind bars, because people are seeing President Trump is not messing around with this. If they try to resort to their own games of bribery and all of this other stuff, they then will be putting themselves in the target,” Gabbard explained.
In a press release earlier this week, the DNI reaffirmed the administration’s zero-tolerance policy toward criminal cartels.
“We will not allow cartel gangs who target Americans to roam freely, whether in the U.S. or across the border in Mexico. Our team at NCTC is on the watch, preparing for the moment to strike,” Gabbard declared.
The State Department designated the Sinaloa Cartel as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) in February 2025, alongside MS-13 and Tren de Aragua — a move long demanded by conservatives frustrated with the previous administration’s inaction.
Since President Trump’s return to office, illegal border crossings have plummeted from the record-breaking highs under Joe Biden.
Even some prominent Democrats are acknowledging the dramatic turnaround.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker — a frequent Trump critic — admitted on Fox News Thursday that the crisis at the southern border has improved. “We don’t have the problem that existed before with people coming across the border,” Pritzker said.
Surprisingly, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) also praised Trump’s border enforcement. Appearing on The Tim Dillon Show, Sanders admitted the obvious: “Trump did a better job.”
“So long as we have nation-states, you’ve got to have borders,” Sanders said. “If you don’t have any borders, then you don’t have a nation.”
“I don’t like Trump, you know, but we should have a secure border, and it ain’t that hard to do,” he added.
Sanders’ remarks, which quickly spread across X and YouTube, mark one of the most striking breaks between the self-proclaimed democratic socialist and the Democratic Party establishment.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you that overall [Biden] did a good job — it was not,” Sanders admitted, according to Fox News.
The numbers back him up. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded 2.47 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2023 — the highest in American history — compared with roughly 458,000 during President Trump’s final year in his first term.
As the President reasserts America’s sovereignty and renews his campaign against the cartels, even his critics are finding it hard to deny what millions of Americans already know: Trump’s policies work.