President Donald Trump said his administration will notify Congress about plans to go after drug traffickers operating on land, but he stopped short of saying he would ask lawmakers to authorize the use of military force.
After praising recent strikes against vessels allegedly used for drug smuggling as a “massive success,” Trump declared, “The land is going to be next.”
At a White House roundtable about his homeland security task forces — which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — Trump added, “We may go to the Senate and we may go to the Congress and tell them about it. But I can’t imagine they'd have any problem with it.”
He then instructed Hegseth to brief legislators directly. “Pete, you go to Congress, you tell them about it. What are they going to say, ‘Gee, we don't want to stop drugs pouring in?’” he asked.
When reporters later pressed him on whether he would seek a formal declaration of war against the drug cartels he has labeled foreign terrorist organizations, Trump said he did not believe that was necessary at this time.
“I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,” he said.
The White House declined to specify whether the president would request any particular authorization from Congress.
NBC News reported last week that some members of Congress are worried about a lack of detail from the administration regarding the intelligence and strategy behind recent strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats.
Trump said the shift toward targeting traffickers on land is a response to what he described as smugglers moving more product overland. “Now they’re coming in by land. Even the land is concerned,” he said, without identifying potential locations for any land operations.