President Donald Trump on Wednesday floated targeting Venezuelan drug cartels with land strikes, an escalation of his administration’s repeated strikes on boats out of the country as he tries to staunch the flow of drugs into the U.S.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said his administration has “almost totally stopped” drug trafficking by sea and “now we’ll stop it by land.”
“I don’t want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we have the sea very well under control,” Trump said.
Over the last month, the U.S. has carried out at least five strikes on Venezuelan boats the White House characterized as “narcoterrorists” responsible for smuggling drugs into the country. The latest strike on Tuesday killed six suspected drug traffickers in international waters, Trump said.
The strikes have been met with backlash, with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle arguing the actions constitute “illegal killings.” A group of former Republican officials have said they believe the strikes may not be legal.
Trump on Wednesday defended his administration’s decisions, stating that the previous use of the U.S. Coast Guard investigating boats before action was taken has been “totally ineffective.”
“They have faster boats, some of these boats, I mean, they are world-class speedboats,” Trump said. “But they’re not faster than missiles.”
Trump argued that each strike his administration launches saves thousands of American lives.
“Every time you see a boat and you feel badly and you say ‘wow that’s rough,’ it is rough but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people — these are people that are killing our population,” Trump said. “The boats get hit and you see that fentanyl all over the ocean, it’s like floating in bags, it’s all over the place. We’re saving a tremendous amount of lives.”
