The New York Times reported that Trump has directed the Pentagon to begin using military force against cartels that were deemed terrorist organizations, while the Wall Street Journal said the president ordered the Defense Department to prepare options to do so.

The Journal said the use of special forces and the provision of intelligence support were among the options under discussion, and that any action would be coordinated with foreign partners.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum insisted following the reports on Friday that there would be "no invasion of Mexico."

Trump vowed in March to "wage war" on Mexico's drug cartels, which he accused of rape and murder as well as "posing a grave threat" to national security.

The month before, the United States designated Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel and six other drug trafficking groups with Latin American roots as "global terrorist" organizations.

Trump's administration has since added another Venezuelan gang, the Cartel of the Suns, which has shipped hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States over two decades.

Trump signed an executive order on January 20, his first day back in the White House, creating a process for such designations, saying the cartels "constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime."