President Donald Trump’s declaration that drug cartels are engaged in “an armed attack against the United States” is raising concerns from Democrats and legal experts who say the president has given himself a “license to kill” without the necessary approval from Congress.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the U.S. military had just killed four more “narco-terrorists” in a strike on a boat in international waters off Venezuela. The strike followed three attacks in September that sank suspected smuggling boats and killed 17 people. Hegseth said Friday that the strikes will continue “until the attacks on the American people are over.”
His threat is consistent with a “confidential notice” the White House sent to some members of Congress earlier in the week. As first reported by The New York Times, the administration stated in the notice that the alleged smugglers were “unlawful combatants,” and that the strikes should be viewed as part of an ongoing conflict rather than as isolated acts of self-defense.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona said he has not read the memo but questioned the comparison between traffickers and terrorists. “There is a big difference between drug traffickers, which are a big problem in our country… and al-Qaida,” Kelly told NOTUS. He said that if the president wants to continue the strikes, he should seek authorization from Congress through an Authorization for Use of Military Force.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said he hasn’t seen the White House memo but wants to know more. “I need to know more about what the White House has as evidence to declare cartels as enemies,” he said.
A House Democratic aide said House Democrats have not yet received the notice but are deeply concerned about Trump’s actions.
“Turning narco traffickers into enemy combatants is a pretty unprecedented step by this administration,” the aide said. “It absolutely does trigger the War Powers Resolution, which the administration tacitly conceded by sending a war powers report after the first strike.”
As Democrats raised questions, some Republicans welcomed Trump’s approach.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said cartels are worse than terrorists. “They kill 100,000 people a year in this country,” he said.
“We should have started this a long time ago. I’m glad to see the president doing what he’s doing. The president’s got to do what he’s got to do to protect our country.”
A spokesperson for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee told NOTUS that the panel’s chair, Republican Sen. Jim Risch, is also aligned with Trump. “The chairman is supportive of President Trump’s decisive actions to protect Americans from illicit narcotics and the drug cartels that bring them to the U.S.,” the spokesperson said.
But according to The Wall Street Journal, senators from both parties pressed the Pentagon’s top lawyer this week for a clearer legal basis for the strikes in a closed-door Senate Armed Services Committee briefing. The Journal reported that Earl Matthews, the general counsel for the Department of Defense, defended the strikes by citing Trump’s designation of certain Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations but declined to provide a written legal justification.
The next day, Trump sent his notice to Congress declaring that cartels’ actions amounted to an armed attack on the United States.
Legal experts argue the administration is stretching the framework used after 9/11.
“The administration is trying to apply the legal framework from the war on terror to narcos and drug trafficking organizations in Latin America,” said Brian Finucane, a former State Department legal adviser now with International Crisis Group. “The facts do not support that application. There has been no armed attack on the United States.”
Finucane said the cartels the U.S. is targeting do not appear to be organized armed groups capable of waging hostilities. “Even if it were Tren de Aragua, that entity does not appear to have a chain of command capable of conducting military operations,” he said.
He warned the president is asserting power without checks. “The administration is saying it can kill people simply by designating them as terrorists and then declaring there is an armed conflict,” Finucane said. “That is extremely concerning. It is a license to kill based solely on the president’s authority.”
“The asserted prerogative doesn’t appear to have any geographic limit,” Finucane said, adding it “could be wielded in Venezuela, Mexico, or even the United States.”
The White House has defended the operations.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Friday that the strikes are consistent with Trump’s constitutional powers as commander in chief. She said the vessels targeted were assessed by U.S. intelligence to be affiliated with designated terrorist organizations and engaged in drug trafficking.
“The president has been very clear,” Leavitt said. “He is always going to do what is in the best interest of the American homeland. He promised to end the drug epidemic that has taken far too many American lives. You are seeing those actions play out almost every day here.”