President Trump on Sunday called the deadly U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean Sea “an act of kindness,” claiming that the attacks had halted drug trafficking via those waters into the United States.
Speaking aboard an aircraft carrier off the coast of Virginia at an event honoring the 250th anniversary of the formation of what would become the U.S. Navy, the president praised U.S. forces for their efficacy in the military operations in the Caribbean.
“We’re so good at it that there are no boats — in fact, even fishing boats,” Mr. Trump said, echoing a claim he made while addressing top U.S. military officials at Marine Base Quantico on Tuesday. “Nobody wants to go into the water anymore.”
The Trump administration told lawmakers last week the airstrikes, which have been questioned by legal experts, were part of a formal “armed conflict” the United States was waging against drug cartels that it has labeled terrorists organizations.
There have been four attacks by the U.S. military against boats off the coast of Venezuela dating to Sept. 2, which the military said had killed a total of 21 people. The White House has not presented proof that the people aboard the vessels were involved in drug smuggling.
The military strikes on the boats represent a stark departure from standard U.S. government efforts to stop the flow of drugs into the country by water, which usually involves law enforcement interdiction of suspected drug boats. Congress did not authorize those strikes, and many legal observers have cast doubt on whether Mr. Trump has the power to order the killing of suspected criminals as if they were enemy soldiers in a war zone.
In a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military had “every authorization needed” to carry out the strikes in the Caribbean. “If you’re north of Venezuela and you want to traffic drugs to the United States, you are a legitimate target,” Mr. Hegseth said.
Mr. Trump conceded in his remarks on Sunday that “it’s a pretty tough thing we’ve been doing.”
But in an apparent justification of the acts, he suggested that the targets were drug smugglers who would otherwise be responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, a claim he has previously made and for which he has offered no evidence.
“When you think of it that way,” Mr. Trump said, “what we’re doing is actually an act of kindness.”
His remarks to thousands of sailors, veterans and their families gathered on board the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, anchored off the coast of Norfolk, Va., came after he suggested to reporters earlier in the day that his administration was looking into the next phase of strikes.
“We’re going to stop drug trafficking,” he said, adding that the strikes had so far “made a big difference.”
Aishvarya Kavi works in the Washington bureau of The Times, helping to cover a variety of political and national news.
The post Trump
Calls Deadly Strikes on Boats in Caribbean an ‘Act of Kindness’ appeared first on New York Times.
