President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration will inform Congress about targeting drug runners on land, but stopped short of saying they would seek authorization for using military force.
After he touted recent military strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats as a massive success, Trump said, "The land is going to be next."
"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 said at a White House roundtable on his homeland security task forces, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Trump then directed Hegseth to go to Capitol Hill.
"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 said.
Asked later whether he’d be seeking a declaration of war against drug cartels that he has already designated as foreign terrorist organizations, Trump said he didn’t see a need to at this point.
“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,” Trump said.
Reached for comment, the White House wouldn’t say what, if anything, Trump would seek from Congress.
NBC News reported last week that members of Congress have become concerned over a lack of information from the administration about the intelligence and strategy behind strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats.
Trump said the pivot to targeting people on land was necessary because the strikes on the alleged drug boats have resulted in more drugs’ being transported by land.
“Now they’re coming in by land. Even the land is concerned,” Trump said, without specifying where the land strikes could take place.
In his remarks, he criticized Colombia and Mexico.
"Colombia is a drug den. It’s a drug den, and it has been for a long time," Trump said. "Colombia is very bad. Mexico is run by the cartels. I have great respect for the president, a woman that I think is a tremendous woman. She’s a very brave woman, but Mexico is run by the cartels."
Two B-1 Bombers flew from the United States to about 50 miles from the coast of Venezuela on Thursday, according to a defense official and flight tracker data for the aircraft. The flights were a show of presence, according to the official.
Asked at the White House event whether the United States sent B-1 bombers to Venezuela to ramp up military pressure, Trump said: "No, that's not accurate. It's false."
It wasn't clear whether he was denying that the bombers were sent or that they were meant to increase pressure on the country.
"But we're not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons, drugs being one of them," Trump added.
Hegseth defended the multiple boat strikes in recent weeks in his remarks and insisted they were legally authorized.
"Our message to these foreign terrorist 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," he said.
On Wednesday, Hegseth announced more lethal strikes against what he said were vessels involved in drug trafficking operations in the eastern Pacific.
Colombian President Gustavo Petro decried the strikes.
“The attack on another boat in the Pacific, we don’t know if it was Ecuadorian or Colombian, left some dead,” Petro said Wednesday on X.
“All the same, it is murder,” he added. “Whether it be in the Caribbean or the Pacific, the U.S. government’s strategy violates the norms of international law.”
