Trump pledged to expand strikes against cartels from sea to land
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Speaking from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump said the United States will “strike” drug traffickers who try to enter the United States by land, following a series of deadly strikes on cartel boats at sea.
The president has been questioned about his use of military force to crack down on drug traffickers in the Caribbean and Pacific region following the eighth such strike in recent weeks.
Trump admitted that the matter was “violent,” but said that “each one of those boats that are destroyed saves the lives of 25,000 Americans.”
“We have the greatest army in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And you see so few of them out there, one shot, every dead drop. The only way you can’t feel bad about that is to realize…that every time you see that happen, you’re saving 25,000 American lives.”
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President Donald Trump declared an “armed conflict” against gangs transporting drugs into the United States and launched a series of strikes on drug boats. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social; Evan Vucci/AP Photo; Aaron Favila/AP Photo)
“Whenever I see it, I say to myself, ‘I just saved 25,000 lives,'” he added.
Trump said that after these strikes, “there are very few boats that travel on water, so now they will come by land to a lesser extent.”
“And they will be beaten to the ground as well,” he said.
When asked if he had the legal authority to launch strikes on drug traffickers on US soil, Trump confidently replied: “Yes, we do.”
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The suspected drug smuggling ship is seen on the left, moments before it was destroyed in a US raid on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. (X.com/SecWar)
“We have legal authority, we are allowed to do so,” he said, but also noted that “if we did it by land, we might go back to Congress.”
“We will probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we are doing when we reach the ground,” he noted, stressing that “we don’t have to do that.”
“This is a national security problem,” Trump said. “They killed 300,000 Americans last year, and that gives you legal authority.”
“We will hit them hard when they come by land,” he pledged, adding, “They have not experienced that yet, but now we are fully prepared to do so.”
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The Coast Guard Cutter Vigilant’s small boat crew transfers seized illicit drugs from a go-fast vessel to the cutter in the Caribbean Sea, Aug. 15, 2025. (coastguard)
“Something very serious is going to happen. It’s the equivalent of what happens by sea. We’re going to go to Congress just to tell them what we’re doing, just to keep them informed. But we have to do it for national security. We have to do it to save lives.”
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War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that, at Trump’s direction, the military had conducted its first kinetic strike on “narco-terrorists” in the eastern Pacific. This was the eighth attack of its kind in recent weeks.