Trump's strike on alleged Venezuelan drug boat raises questions about
his use of military power
[September 11, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — Within a week of Donald Trump’s election, Sen. Lindsey
Graham counseled the president-elect to quickly send a message to the
drug cartels from the White House.
“Blow up something,” Graham told Trump.
The brazen military strike on a suspected drug-smuggling speedboat
carrying 11 people from Venezuela this month is just what the South
Carolina senator had in mind. But it has cleaved fresh divisions within
the Republican Party over Trump’s campaign promise to keep the U.S. out
of foreign entanglements and the reality of a commander in chief whose
America First agenda is pursuing a tougher military stance.
And it’s raising stark questions about just how far Trump intends to
wield his presidential power over the U.S. military without a robust
check on the executive branch from Congress.
Already, Trump has dropped 30,000-pound (13,600-kilogram) bombs on
Iran's nuclear sites without any new authorizations from Capitol Hill.
He deployed the military to Los Angeles over the objections of
California's Democratic governor and wants the National Guard in other
cities, too. Trump's allies pressured senators to confirm Pete Hegseth
as defense secretary despite objections to his past behavior and
skepticism of “warrior culture" at the Pentagon. And last week Trump
rebranded the Department of Defense as the Department of War.
“I don’t care whether it’s a Republican president or a Democrat
president,” said Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, once a Trump
rival for the White House. “We can’t just want to kill people without
having some kind of process.”
“We’re just going to blow up ships? That just isn’t who we are,” Paul
said.
‘Killing cartel members’
The Trump administration, and the president himself, have said the
lethal strike on the vessel from Venezuela was intended to make it clear
that the U.S. would not tolerate drugs being shipped into this country.
They said those killed on the boat in the Caribbean included members of
the Tren de Aragua gang, which operates from Venezuela, though details
have been scarce.
“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest
and best use of our military,” Vice President JD Vance posted on social
media.
When a prominent commenter suggested that killing civilians without due
process would be a war crime, Vance replied that he didn't care "what
you call it.”
Paul, the senator, responded to Vance with his own questions.
“Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird?" Paul wrote. "Did he ever
wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed
without trial or representation??
“What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing
someone without a trial.”
A bipartisan briefing on the matter for the Senate’s top national
security staff was abruptly canceled last week. And Tuesday’s
rescheduled session left many questions unanswered.
'There’s a legal way to do that'
The Trump administration did not explain its authority for the strike
and would not provide legal opinion, according to a person familiar with
the briefing who insisted on anonymity because it was closed.
“Where is the legality here?” said Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former
Navy combat pilot and astronaut.
“I understand the need for us to be able to take out drug dealers from
being able to deliver drugs into the United States," he said. "There’s a
legal way to do that.”
[to top of second column]
|
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before he enters a
restaurant near the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2025, in
Washington, to have dinner. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
But Kelly said he worries for the military officers involved with
the mission. “What situation did we, did the White House, just put
them in?" he said. "I don’t know if this was legal or not.”
What Venezuela had to say
After Trump announced the strike, Venezuelan state television showed
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores
walking the streets of his childhood neighborhood. A television
presenter said Maduro was “bathing in patriotic love” as he
interacted with supporters.
Maduro did not immediately address the strike directly but charged
that the United States was “coming for Venezuela’s riches,”
including the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
Trump's national security vision and the power to enact it
Republicans have been shifting their national security priorities
since Trump’s first term moved the GOP away from its traditional
mooring as a party with a muscular approach to confronting
adversaries and assisting allies abroad.
Trump’s America First approach initially launched a new era of U.S.
neo-isolationism more aligned with the libertarian-leaning Paul than
traditional defense hawks like Graham.
But in his second term, Trump is testing not his national security
vision but his power to enact it.
Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the Republican chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, said he is “extremely confident” that
the target of the boat bombing was "a group of narco-terrorists.”
“I can’t tell you how many lives were saved by the president of the
United States when he pulled the trigger on that,” Risch said
Tuesday. “There were tons of drugs that went down with that that
would’ve wound up right here in the USA.”
Gesturing to the Supreme Court building across from the Capitol, GOP
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said he believes the president’s
actions fall under his Article II authority, since the
administration said the drugs were heading to the U.S.
“My gut intuition is it’s within the president’s commander in chief
powers,” Hawley said.
Briefing for lawmakers
But Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate
Armed Services Committee, called for lawmakers to receive a full
briefing from the Trump administration, including the legal
rationale for the military strike.
If the president exceeded his authority, then the Senate must
consider all remedies available, including limiting the use of funds
for further unauthorized military operations, he said. “We cannot
risk the life of American servicemembers based on secret orders and
dubious legal theories,” Reed said.
Graham, a former judge advocate general, or JAG, officer in the
Navy, recalled his advice as Trump prepared to return to the White
House.
“Whether it's a lab, I don’t care if it’s in Mexico, I don’t care
where it is,” Graham recalled. “I said, ‘Look for a target that
changes the game.’”
Asked if the strike on the Venezuelan boat was it, Graham said:
“Works for me.”
___
Associated Press writers Joey Cappelletti, Mary Clare Jalonick and
Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
