President Donald Trump has expanded his war on drugs beyond the Caribbean with an attack on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean that his administration said was carrying narcotics. On Wednesday, he said he was “fully prepared” to escalate the situation with ground attacks.
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"There are very few vessels sailing. So now they will come by land to a lesser extent and will be attacked on land," the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday.
"We'll deal them a very hard blow when they arrive by land. They haven't experienced it yet, but we're fully prepared for it now."
Trump, whose deadly attacks in international waters have been described by critics as “extrajudicial killings,” claimed he had the authority to do so because it was a matter of national security.
“We have the legal authority,” he said. “This is a national security issue. 300,000 people were killed last year.”
The president stated that he would consult with Congress before taking such a step. Many lawmakers have questioned whether Trump can order such attacks without congressional approval.
“You can’t have a policy where you simply plead guilty and then kill someone,” Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky told Fox News on Wednesday. “If we were at war, the Constitution says Congress must vote to declare war.”
Tensions between the United States and South American countries have increased due to Trump's aggressive military strategy in the Caribbean, which he claims is intended to prevent the entry of drugs into the United States.
And now he's taking it even further.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the latest attack, which occurred Tuesday, killed two people on board and occurred in the Eastern Pacific, in international waters. The vessel was off the coast of Colombia, a defense official told CBS News.
