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.