President Donald Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office on Monday that potential military strikes in Mexico to disrupt the drug trade would be "okay with me".

He expressed rare openness to direct Pentagon action inside America's neighbor to the immediate south, at a moment of ongoing deadly drone strikes on alleged drug boats off the coast of Venezuela. This is sure to turn US-Mexico relations in a more negative direction, but Trump doesn't seem overly concerned with this as he ramps up the pressure, also on Colombia. 

He said he'd be willing to do this to prevent drugs from entering the United States, and further he'd be proud to "knock out" cocaine factories in Colombia.

On Colombia, where the president, his family and top officials have recently been hit with US sanctions, Trump said as follows:

"Colombia has cocaine factories where they make cocaine. Would I knock out those factories? I would be proud to do it personally. I didn’t say I’m doing it, but I would be proud to do it because we’re going to save millions of lives by doing it."

This renewed war on drugs rhetoric has been met with immense controversy, including among some US Congress members who demand a Congressional vote before war is declared on Venezuela or any other sovereign Latin American country.

But the administration has also been utilizing 'terrorism' labels to justify strikes, which up to now has included targeting over twenty alleged drug boats and killing some 80 people.

Trump really focused the bulk of the Monday comments with putting Mexico on notice:

The State Department designated six Mexican drug cartels, along with Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and MS-13, as foreign terrorist organizations in February. 

The president indicated on Monday that he would go to Congress to ask for permission for the strikes and predicted the potential actions would be supported by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. 

"So let me just put it this way," he said. "I am not happy with Mexico."

Watch the full exchange below:

Last month, as attacks on drug boats in the southern Caribbean escalated, Trump expressed something similar on the question of bypassing Congress. "I’m not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war," he said at the time. "I think we’re just doing to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead."

Without doubt, leaders in Mexico City and Bogota are increasingly nervous over such rhetoric - but there's little in reality they could do if their sovereignty were violated by US military action. Clearly Trump thinks these corrupt countries have not done enough to dismantle the cartels, which has in turn fueled the drug crisis in America.