Hours after Donald Trump issued a chilling threat to keep killing enemies without legal authority, the president made good on his pledge by ordering his 10th strike on an alleged drug boat.
Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the U.S. had blown up a vessel suspected of carrying drugs in international waters, killing six people and bringing the death toll of its “narco-terrorism” campaign to at least 43.
“Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea,” Hegseth wrote on social media.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.
“Six male narco-terrorists were aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters—and was the first strike at night. All six terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”
The strike is the 10th to take place since September 2, when the first operation killed 11 people, who Trump also claimed were from the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua.
This was followed by several other strikes, including two carried in the Pacific earlier this week.
But the administration has never provided evidence to back up its claims about who or what is on board, sparking growing concerns, both internationally and within Republican ranks.
“We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war. It’s summary execution!” said Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, one of the few Republicans willing to speak out against Trump.
However, Trump doubled down on Thursday, telling reporters that he would keep ordering the strikes even if he had no legal authority.
“I don’t think we will necessarily ask for a Declaration of War,” he said, referencing the Act that Presidents must request from Congress, which has the authority under the Constitution to declare war.
“I think we will just kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead.”
The president’s bone-chilling warning come after he and his allies lobbied aggressively for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Instead, it was awarded this year to Venezuelan activist María Corina Machado, the opposition leader of the country he is targeting along with its leader, Nicholas Maduro.
As a consolation prize of sorts, Trump received the Architect of Peace Award from the Richard Nixon Foundation on Tuesday during a private ceremony at the White House.
But as he seeks to resolve wars elsewhere, Trump quietly decided earlier this month that the U.S. is now in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that he views as terrorists, paving the way for more lethal military strikes in international waters.
He also warned that the U.S. could even begin land strikes, bragging that the military’s water strikes had been so successful that there were barely any boats left to target.
Amid growing concern, Sen. Tim Kaine has led a bipartisan effort in conjunction with Democrat Senator Adam Schiff and GOP Senator Rand Paul to force the Senate to vote on a resolution that would stop Trump from unilaterally declaring war on Venezuela.
“The pace of the announcements, the authorization of covert activities and the military planning makes me think there’s some chance this could be imminent,” Kaine said last week.
Some global leaders, such as Colombian President Gustav Petro, have even called for a criminal investigation by the United Nations, likening Trump’s actions to murder.
Tensions escalated last week when Petro claimed that one man who was killed in a boat strike that took place in mid-September was “lifelong fisherman” Alejandro Carranza, whose boat had experienced damage and was adrift.
Trump responded online by declaring Petro, who rose to prominence as a Colombian Senator by exposing links between right-wing paramilitary groups involved in drug trafficking and corrupt politicians, was an “illegal drug leader.”
