Trump Says US Strikes on ‘Narco-Terrorists’ Don’t Need War Declaration, Warns of Land Attacks Next

President Donald Trump has said the United States will expand its deadly campaign against alleged “narco-terrorists” from sea to land, and that Congress won’t be asked to declare war before it happens.

“Well, I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
“I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We’re going to kill them.”

Trump said the US military has already hit at least nine vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since early September, killing at least 37 people in what Washington calls an anti-narcotics operation, though no evidence has been presented to support the claims that those targeted were drug traffickers.

“Now they [drugs] are coming in by land,” Trump added. “You know, the land is going to be next.”

Escalating Military Campaign

The White House has described the attacks as part of a wider military campaign against Latin American cartels, deploying F-35 fighter jets, a nuclear submarine, and thousands of troops across the Caribbean.

The operation marks one of the most aggressive US military actions in the region in decades, and it has triggered alarm in Venezuela and Colombia, where Washington accuses the governments of Nicolás Maduro and Gustavo Petro of drug trafficking.

Tensions Over the Caribbean Skies

Flight-tracking data showed a US B-1B bomber flying over the Caribbean Sea near Venezuela on Wednesday, the second such incident in a week.
Trump dismissed the reports as “false,” but quickly added that the US is “not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons.”

Last week, B-52 bombers also circled near Venezuela for several hours, with the Pentagon calling the flights a “deterrence mission” to demonstrate readiness “to respond to any contingency or challenge.”