Donald Trump said on Thursday that his administration could soon expand its military attacks on alleged drug smugglers from Venezuela and also begin pursuing them on land.
Trump, who has faced questions over whether he has the legal authority to use lethal force against the people in boats from Venezuela, said during a press conference he was not sure whether the administration would seek approval from Congress to attack people from the South American country over land.
“The land is going to be next,” Trump said during a press conference after a roundtable with members of his administration. “And we may go to the Senate; we may go to the Congress and tell them about it, but I can’t imagine they’d have any problem with it.”
Trump and the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, have justified the nine strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific side of South America, which have killed at least 37 people, by describing the alleged drug traffickers as terrorists.
“Just as al-Qaida waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people,” Hegseth posted on social media Wednesday, adding that “there will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice”.
During the press conference Thursday, Trump denied a Wall Street Journal report that the country flew Air Force B-1 bombers near Venezuela earlier in the day.
Some analysts have speculated that the Trump administration’s anti-narcotics efforts are actually a pretext for trying to oust President Nicolás Maduro, who Trump has called a “narco-terrorist”.
Democrats and even some of Trump’s strongest supporters have questioned the administration’s military strikes against Venezuela.
“Now we’re flying B-52s along the coast of Venezuela, talking about regime change?” Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona, said on MSNBC on Thursday.
“How often has regime change worked out well for the United States, whether it’s in Vietnam, Cuba, Iraq or Afghanistan? It puts American lives at risk, and this is not making us more safe. It’s having the opposite effect.”
