President Donald Trump has floated the idea of extending his extrajudicial strikes against suspected drug vessels onto land—or, as it might be called, he has proposed a declaration of war.
During a roundtable press conference on Thursday, Trump said he had virtually eradicated drug trafficking at sea since the launch. ninth strike on a foreign vessel earlier this week, without providing any factual evidence linking the vessels to any drug cartel.
“So now they're coming by land and even the land is worried because I told them this was coming next,” Trump rambling. “Do you know that land is next? And we can go to the Senate, we can go to Congress and tell them about it, but I can't imagine they'll have any problem with it.”
“What are they going to do? Say, 'Gee, we don't want to stop the flow of drugs?'” Trump added.
But only Congress can decide whether the United States is at war, not Trump, even if he believes the GOP-led legislature is too weak-willed to stop him. Of course, this would not be the first time that a president tried to get around Powers of Congress.
Trump has already decided unilaterally declare war on so-called narco-terrorism drug ships, declaring a state of “non-international armed conflict” against ships belonging to “recognized terrorist organizations.” A memo sent to Congress last month argued that Trump had the authority to define cartels as “non-state armed groups” and their drug trafficking constituted an “armed attack on the United States.”
