President Donald Trump’s expanding use of military strikes against boats suspected of carrying narcotics risks setting a new and lower standard for the use of lethal attacks abroad — one that critics say could alienate allies in the fight against illegal drugs and amount to a potential misuse of presidential power.
Two new U.S. attacks, which occurred on Wednesday off the coast of Colombia, killed five people and extended the strikes into the Pacific for the first time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced.
“Narco-terorists intending to bring poison to our shores, will find no safe harbor anywhere in our hemisphere,” Hegseth wrote on X. “There will be no refuge or forgiveness — only justice.”
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said strikes on land could be next. “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” he said. “We’re totally prepared to do that. We’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”
The nine strikes by the Trump administration on boats in the Pacific and Caribbean have raised questions about the legality of such attacks. The administration claims that the alleged drug traffickers being targeted are “unlawful combatants” participating in a war instead of criminals illegally carrying out drug operations.
The location of the most recent attacks could further anger Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who accused the United States of “murder” after a strike last month in the Caribbean killed a Colombian national Petro described as a fisherman. In response, Trump enacted tariffs against Colombia, cut U.S. aid and called Petro “an illegal drug leader.”