The first time President Trump ordered the U.S. military to attack a small, high-speed motorboat in international waters near Venezuela, he posted the fiery image online and said the deaths of the roughly dozen people on board should be a warning to “narco-terrorists.”
Vice President JD Vance chimed in, telling critics who said the attack amounted to an extrajudicial killing that getting rid of “cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”
To drive home his point, Mr. Trump ordered an attack on a second boat on Monday, and told reporters that there had been a third, as well. He also announced on Monday that he would send National Guard troops to Memphis to crack down on crime, and said that after the assassination of the prominent right-wing activist Charlie Kirk last week, investigations had begun into “radical left” groups. Some, administration officials say, may be designated “domestic terrorists.”
Eight months into Mr. Trump’s presidency, Americans and the world are learning a lot about his willingness to use military force, and terrorist designations, as he expands his willingness to target enemies, foreign and domestic. It is a notably different approach than during his first term, when Mr. Trump chafed at being held back, including in one instance when his defense secretary said that he could not shoot missiles into Mexico to attack cartel strongholds.
In this term, cabinet members cheer him on, as they did in the Oval Office on Monday, and describe how the laws of counterterrorism are there to be bent to his will.
Much of this is about creating macho imagery, of course. Not long ago, the Department of Homeland Security, which has been issuing World War I- and World War II-style recruitment posters, sent a social media post that showed Mr. Trump on an armored personnel carrier, manning a light machine gun, his signature red tie flapping in the wind behind him.
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The post At Home and on the Seas, Trump Expands Use of American Force appeared first on New York Times.
