President Donald Trump said he believes he has the legal authority to launch strikes in international waters to target illegal drug cartels, but indicated he may seek Congressional approval for any operations on land.
“We do – we have legal authority,” Trump said when questioned about the strikes Wednesday in the Oval Office.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had announced earlier Wednesday that the US military conducted a strike the day before against a boat in the Eastern Pacific, marking the 8th known strike on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel.
South American leaders have questioned the legality of Trump’s strikes, and Colombian President Gustavo Petro recently accused the US of murdering an innocent Colombian national.
Trump defended the strikes, saying, “Every one of those boats that gets knocked out is saving 25,000 American lives.”
Last week, Trump acknowledged that he’d authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela and said the United States was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory. But on Wednesday, he suggested some openness to informing Congress about future operations on land.
“We’re allowed to do that, and if we do by land, we may go back to Congress, but we have, this is a national security problem. They killed 300,000 people last year. Drugs, these drugs coming in, they killed 300,000 Americans last year, and that gives you legal authority,” he said.
Trump added, “We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land. We don’t have to do that, but I think Marco, I’d like to do that,” referring to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
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