WATCH: Trump says he could attack drug cartels on land amid boat strikes

By Brett Rowland
The Center Square

President Donald Trump said the U.S. military could soon go after drug smuggling on land and would consider taking the matter to Congress, but said that last step wasn’t required.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that another strike was conducted Tuesday in the eastern pacific at President Donald Trump’s direction.

“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “There were two narco-terrorists aboard the vessel during the strike, which was conducted in international waters. Both terrorists were killed and no U.S. forces were harmed in this strike.”

Yesterday, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel being operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization and conducting narco-trafficking in the Eastern Pacific. The vessel was known by our intelligence to be… pic.twitter.com/BayDhUZ4Ac— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) October 22, 2025

Trump and military officials have released few details about the growing number of strikes, but both Trump and Hegseth have posted videos of multiple recent strikes. The Pentagon has not confirmed the number of strikes or their dates.

Trump on Wednesday said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio would like to seek Congressional authorization before moving the strikes on land. Trump said that each drug strike in the sea saved 25,000 American lives.

Trump said the strikes have significantly decreased boat tariff in the region.

“So now they’ll come in by land to a lesser extent and they will be hit on land also,” Trump said. “We have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that. And if we do it by land, we may go back to Congress. But this is a national security problem. … We will hit them very hard when they come in by land.”

Trump said he “would probably” go back to Congress for approval. Trump said he didn’t need to get approval, but he said Secretary of State Marco Rubio would prefer to go through Congress.

“If people want to stop seeing drug boats blow up, stop sending boats to the United States,” Rubio said.

The Secretary of State also said the government has lots of information about the strikes that it isn’t sharing publicly.

Rubio said U.S. forces know who is behind the drug trafficking by boat.

“We know who’s on them, who they are, where they are coming from, what they have on them,” Rubio said.

Few of those details have been shared publicly.

Trump also said drug use has declined as a result of the boat strikes, which have decreased the amount of drugs coming into the U.S. by boat. Such figures have not been released publicly.

Trump’s use of military strikes on suspected drug boats marks a new strategy in the war on drugs. Previously, U.S. forces stopped suspect vessels, made arrests, and seized drugs.

Trump ordered military strikes on Sept. 2, Sept. 15, Sept. 19, Oct. 3, Oct. 14, Oct. 17 and Oct. 21 on suspected drug boats. Most of the strikes were in the Caribbean.

The U.S. said the boat strikes resulted in 33 deaths.

After one of the U.S. strikes against a speedboat, agents from the Dominican Republic’s National Drug Control Directorate and the Dominican Republic Navy seized 377 packages of suspected cocaine about 80 nautical miles south of Beata Island, Pedernales province.

The Senate recently shut down a Democrat-led proposal that would have required Trump to get congressional approval before using the military to destroy suspected drug boats in the region.

Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, says these strikes would be unlawful even if smuggling allegations were true.

“Instead of intercepting and boarding boats on the high seas that it believes are part of a scheme to violate U.S. law, the White House is striking them with missiles and often killing those on board,” he said. “It then publishes the videos of these extrajudicial killings as part of its propaganda yet refuses to publish key facts that would enable the public and members of Congress to evaluate its actions, including the identity of the chain of command responsible.”

Olson said even suspected drug smugglers get a trial in the U.S.

“It is important to emphasize that this conduct would be unlawful even if the Administration were correct in every instance about its smuggling allegations. It would also risk embroiling the United States in a war with third countries. Imagine if a foreign government struck at U.S. boats and citizens this way!” he wrote. “And the fact is that grave doubts continue growing from week to week as to whether the boats and crews really are guilty of the allegations leveled from Washington.”

Olson noted the U.S. released two suspected drug smugglers.

“Families and village neighbors in particular cases say no, independent press outlets in affected countries like Colombia say no, and now the administration has released survivors from one strike rather than holding them and presenting charges that could be examined in a court of law,” he wrote. “Americans must demand a stop to extrajudicial killings by our government – all the more so as evidence mounts that some of the victims have committed no crime.”

Hegseth said the strategy would continue.

“Narco-terrorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” the War Secretary said. “Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness – only justice.”

In October, Trump told Congress that the U.S. is engaged in “armed conflict” with drug cartels in the Caribbean.

“The President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” according to the confidential notice the administration sent to Congress. Trump directed the U.S. Department of War to “conduct operations against them pursuant to the law of armed conflict.”

One recent strike against a suspected drug submarine wasn’t lethal and resulted in two survivors, who were returned to their home countries, Trump said.

“The two surviving terrorists are being returned to their Countries of origin, Ecuador and Colombia, for detention and prosecution,” the president noted in a Truth Social post over the weekend. “Under my watch, the United States of America will not tolerate narcoterrorists trafficking illegal drugs, by land or by sea.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to questions about the strikes from The Center Square as the federal government shutdown continued. The partial federal shutdown started Oct. 1 after Congress failed to approve spending bills to keep the government open. The partial shutdown has limited government operations, including responses to media questions.

Nicolás Maduro, the president of Venezuela, has been accused of consolidating power through fraudulent elections. In 2024, his reelection was widely condemned as illegitimate, with allegations of vote tampering and intimidation of opposition leaders. Maduro is also facing allegations of human rights abuses, corruption, and involvement in illegal narcotics trafficking. U.S. prosecutors have charged Maduro with running a drug cartel that allegedly uses cocaine trafficking as a tool to sustain the regime.

Most of the boat strikes have been near Venezuela.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro previously called for a criminal investigation into Trump and other U.S. officials related to the military strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. Petro recently proposed that Qatar could serve as a mediator to help stop the strikes.

Trump has criticized Petro’s drug policies.

“President Gustavo Petro, of Colombia, is an illegal drug leader strongly encouraging the massive production of drugs, in big and small fields, all over Colombia. It has become the biggest business in Colombia, by far, and Petro does nothing to stop it, despite large scale payments and subsidies from the USA that are nothing more than a long term rip off of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “AS OF TODAY, THESE PAYMENTS, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF PAYMENT, OR SUBSIDIES, WILL NO LONGER BE MADE TO COLOMBIA. The purpose of this drug production is the sale of massive amounts of product into the United States, causing death, destruction, and havoc.”

Trump said it was time to eradicate the cocaine fields in Columbia, the top cocaine-producing nation.

“Petro, a low rated and very unpopular leader, with a fresh mouth toward America, better close up these killing fields immediately, or the United States will close them up for him, and it won’t be done nicely,” the U.S. president said.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment found that most U.S. cocaine is produced in Colombia and smuggled into the U.S.

“Colombia remains the primary source country for cocaine entering the United States, followed by Peru and Bolivia,” according to the report. “Mexico-based cartels obtain multi-ton cocaine shipments from South America and smuggle it via sea, air, or overland to Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean for subsequent movement into the United States.”

David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, said the military strikes significantly changed U.S. policy and could pose legal challenges. He also told The Center Square that the strikes wouldn’t disrupt the flow of illicit drugs into the U.S.

“It will certainly reduce drug trafficking by boats near Venezuela, but will do little to reduce total supply coming to the United States because drug trafficking is a global phenomenon with a variety of channels,” Bier told The Center Square.

Both Democrats and Republicans have raised questions about the strikes.