Trump insists he can strike alleged drug traffickers without Congress declaring war

U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during an announcement regarding his administration's policies against cartels and human trafficking, next to U.S. Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, from the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on October 23. (Credit: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters via CNN Newsource)

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday insisted that he could continue to launch strikes against alleged drug traffickers abroad without Congress first passing an official declaration of war.

“I’m not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. “I think we’re just doing to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.”

Trump’s dismissal came as he suggested his administration would soon begin targeting those deemed as cartel members within countries like Venezuela, in addition to continuing to strike alleged drug boats in international waters.

The president said he would notify Congress first before beginning any operations on “land,” but contended that the plan would not face any pushback from lawmakers.

“We going to go. I don’t see any loss in going” to Congress, Trump said. “We’re going to tell them what we’re going to do and I think they’ll probably like it, except for the radical left lunatics.”

The lethal strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and east Pacific have unnerved some lawmakers, given the little evidence the administration has presented proving that the targets were so-called narco-terrorists.

On Thursday, U.S. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted that the military has confirmed that each targeted boat is trafficking drugs. Still, he defended the decision to return two survivors of a recent strike as “standard” practice in war.

“Compared to Iraq and Afghanistan, the vast majority of people that we captured on the battlefield we handed over to the home country,” he said, referencing the U.S.’ wars in the Middle East. “So in this case, those two, they were treated by American medics and handed immediately over to their countries where they came from.”

Trump’s remarks come as an American B-1 Lancer bomber flew near the coast of Venezuela on Thursday, although the president denied that the U.S. sent the B-1 bomber.

“No, it’s not accurate. No. It’s false. But we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them, but also they’ve been sending their prisoners into our country for years under the Biden administration, not anymore, we have a closed border,” Trump said.

The aircraft first appeared on flight-tracking dashboards southwest of the Dallas Fort Worth area around 4:30 a.m. ET on Thursday and at its closest point was a little more than 50 miles (80 kilometres) from the Venezuelan mainland.

About nine hours later, open-source flight data showed the bomber reappearing for around 15 minutes within Venezuela’s flight information region (FIR) – an area where air traffic control is provided by Venezuelan authorities.

However, it was not immediately clear whether the plane — which was accompanied by a second aircraft during its appearance in the FIR — entered Venezuelan airspace.

CNN has reached out to the Defence Department for comment.

The flight comes as tensions continue to rise between the two countries following the deployment of U.S. warships to the Caribbean on what Washington has said is part of a counter-drug trafficking campaign but Caracus fears is a cover for regime change.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday claimed his country had 5,000 Russian-made Igla-S anti-aircraft missiles in “key air defence positions.”

The missiles are short-range, low-altitude systems that can shoot down small aerial targets such as cruise missiles, drones and low-flying planes. While B-1s can fly at altitudes as high as 60,000 feet they can also operate as low as 200 feet above the ground.