President Donald Trump claimed without citing legal authority on Thursday that he doesn’t need the approval of Congress to conduct his boat strike campaign in the Caribbean, simply saying his administration is “just gonna kill people.”
In a press conference on Thursday, Trump also claimed that Congress was in favor of the strikes. When asked why he wouldn’t seek congressional approval for the attacks if Congress would be likely to grant him war powers, Trump dismissed the idea.
“Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, okay? We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,” he said.
A wide variety of experts and lawmakers have pointed out that the campaign is illegal under both international and domestic law, as the Constitution declares that only Congress has the power to declare war.
Trump’s comments come amid rising concerns that he is seeking to consolidate more and more power into the executive branch.
“To be clear, this is Trump not only admitting to using military force without Congress’ constitutionally required authorization, but to committing extrajudicial killings — or in other words, murder,” said Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs for the Center for International Policy.
“A blaring red warning signal for the rule of law; a President declaring ‘we’re just gonna kill people’ without a trial or even a shred of due process,” said American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick.
Notably, members of Congress have said that the Trump administration has not shared any evidence to back its claims that it is targeting “narco-terrorists” in the drug trade who are carrying drugs to the U.S.
But the administration has given Congress very few briefings on the operation. Further, even in those briefings, Pentagon officials have not given basic information about the strikes, lawmakers have said, including who they were targeting and the legal basis for the operation.
Still, the illegal campaign is ever expanding. This week, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the U.S. had struck two boats in the eastern Pacific Ocean — after acknowledging on Sunday that the military had targeted Colombian nationals in a strike.
In remarks Wednesday, Trump said that drugs are also entering the U.S. by land and that that was the next stage for the U.S.’s assault.
“I told them, the land is going to be next,” he said. “We may go to the Senate, we may go to Congress, and tell them about it, but I can’t imagine they’re going to have any problem with it.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized the strikes and have expressed frustration with the lack of transparency. Senate Democrats have launched a bid to pass a resolution to bar Trump from carrying out further boat strikes, despite the fact that they already are unconstitutional.
However, Republican senators united against the resolution earlier this month, shooting it down in a 51-48 vote largely along party lines. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) were the only two Republicans to vote for the resolution, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) was the only Democrats to vote against it.
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