President Trump said on Thursday that he would bypass Congress rather than seek its approval to carry out military strikes against drug cartels that traffic narcotics to the United States, even as he vowed to expand the operation from attacks at sea to targets on land.
“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” Mr. Trump told reporters of his campaign of deadly strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea near Colombia and Venezuela. “I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be like, dead.”
He made the remarks during a news conference at the White House to promote the work of agencies that Mr. Trump said were working to “arrest, prosecute and permanently remove” people who were part of an elaborate drug cartel operation inside the United States.
They came as the president has talked about expanding the legally questionable military operation he has undertaken over the past several weeks, in which nine airstrikes at sea have resulted in 37 acknowledged deaths.
The Senate is expected to vote next week on a bipartisan resolution that would bar the United States from engaging in hostilities inside Venezuela without explicit authorization by Congress.
The Constitution gives Congress the authority to declare war, but formal declarations are rare and have not been issued since World War II. Lawmakers have more often passed authorizations for the use of military force to grant the president permission to use force against specific targets.
The last time a president sought such a resolution was in October 2002, when President George W. Bush asked for authorization to use military force against Iraq. Congress approved that measure, and it has been cited for decades as the legal basis for military operations around the world carried out by subsequent administrations of both parties.
Though he repeatedly referred to the military operation targeting drug trafficking as a “war,” Mr. Trump said he would not seek any formal approval from lawmakers to continue striking boats or expand it to include airstrikes against countries like Venezuela, where he says the cartels originate.
“The cartels are waging war against America and just like I promised in the campaign, we are waging war against them,” he said in the White House state dining room flanked by members of his cabinet, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence; and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“The land is going to be next,” he added.
Mr. Hegseth said the operation was aimed not only at deterrence but also elimination.
“Every boat we strike is 25,000 Americans whose lives were saved because of the drugs that were headed in our direction,” Mr. Hegseth said. “Our message to these foreign terrorists organizations is: We will treat you like we have treated Al Qaeda, we will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down and we will kill you.”
Mr. Trump said that he “may go to the Senate” to inform lawmakers as the campaign shifts from maritime operations to land strikes, and told Mr. Hegseth to “go to Congress, you tell them about it.”
But he appeared to be referring to a briefing rather than any formal request for approval. He appeared confident that lawmakers would support the action — or at least shy away from criticizing it.
“What are they going to do? Say, ‘Gee, we don’t want to stop drugs pouring in?’” Mr. Trump said. “They’re killing 300,000 people a year.”
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