Donald Trump has not been shy about testing the limits of presidential power, especially when it comes to the war on drugs.
Trump has started to use the military, hitting suspected drug boats in the open water, a move that has not sat well with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Now, Trump is suggesting that he may conduct a strike in Venezuela, and so far, Congress is refusing to block him from doing it.
As soon as Trump took office, he declared drug cartels and gangs as terrorist organizations, likely doing so in order to change the rule book on how we deal with them.
Trump classified the current battle as a “non-international armed conflict.”
The president has since green-lit several military strikes against suspected drug-running boats, but that has not gone down well with everyone, including some Republicans.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), for instance, says Trump is depriving these people of due process, essentially carrying out summary executions.
Legislation was put forth to stop Trump, but the Republican Party managed to block a measure designed to dial back presidential powers on this front.
When the bill hit the floor of the Senate, it was stopped by a vote of 51-48, which fell mostly along party lines.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) was one of the Democrats trying to force the vote, stating, “This is the kind of thing that leads the country unexpectedly and unintentionally into war.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (D-AK) agreed, stating, “We all want to get rid of the drugs in this country, absolutely. But the approach that the administration is taking is new, some would say novel, and I think we have a role here.”
Now, Trump sounds like he may expand the strikes to the point of conducting them on Venezuelan soil, which is a whole new can of worms as far as his powers and Congress are concerned.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth just announced the creation of a new task force to “crush the cartels,” adding, "The message is clear: if you traffic drugs toward our shores, we will stop you cold."
Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, believes this means that Trump is on innovative ground, explaining, "This is a sign that President Trump is taking the U.S. war on drugs in Latin America to the next level. By involving the military, the president is going after drug cartels in a way that no previous U.S. administration has dared to so far. I think it is likely that we will see the Pentagon evaluate targets inside Venezuela."
If Trump conducts a strike on Venezuelan soil, that is something that could start a war, and Venezuela has already said that if Trump wants to dance, it would willingly engage. I don’t think things would come to that, but there could be severe repercussions for Trump, especially if Democrats retake the House and Senate. If I were the president, I would stay away from land targets and just continue to blast those boats out of the water. All things considered, it seems to be the path of least resistance if he wants to continue to use the military to fight this war.
