WASHINGTON (AP) – Within a week of Donald Trump’s election, Senator Lindsey Graham I counseled the presidential election to send a quick message from the White House to the drug cartel.
“It’s going to blow something up,” Graham told Trump.
Brave military strike In Suspicion of drug-crowded speedboats Carry 11 people from Venezuela This month is something that South Carolina senators had in mind. But it has ripped a fresh division within the Republican Party over Trump Campaign Promise To protect the United States from foreign entanglements and the reality of the Chief Commander First Gender of America We pursue a more severe military stance.
And it raises harsh questions about Trump trying to wield his presidential power over a robust US military. Check the administrative department From the council.
I already have Trump Drops 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilograms) of bomb At Iran’s nuclear site without new approval from Capitol Hill. he The military has been deployed to Los Angeles California’s Democratic governor over his hopes of opposition National Guards in other citiestoo. Trump’s Allies Pressure Senator To check out Pete Hegses Secretary of Defense Despite his objections Past actions Scepticism of “Warrior Culture” With a pentagon. And last week, Trump rebranded the Department of Defense. War Bureau.
“I don’t care if it’s a Republican president or a Democrat president,” the Republican said. Senator Randpole of KentuckyHe was once a White House Trump rival. “We don’t just want to kill people without having any kind of process.”
“Are we going to just blow up the ship? That’s not who we are,” Paul said.
“Killing a member of the cartel”
The Trump administration and the president himself said Fatal strike against a vessel From Venezuela, the aim was to make it clear that the US would not tolerate drugs shipped to this country. They said it includes people killed in Caribbean boats. Tren de Aragua Gangworks from Venezuela, but details are missing.
“Killing the members of the cartel that poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vice President JD Vance posted on social media.
When a prominent commenter suggested that killing civilians without justification would be a war crime, Vance replied that he didn’t care about “what you call it.”
Senator Paul answered Vance with his own questions.
“Have he read to kill a mockingbird?” Paul wrote. “He wondered what would happen if the accused were executed immediately without trial or expression?
“What a sleazy and thoughtless feeling to praise someone for killing without trial.”
A bipartisan briefing on issues with the Senate’s top national security staff was suddenly cancelled last week. And Tuesday’s scheduled session didn’t answer many questions.
“There’s a legitimate way to do that.”
The Trump administration did not explain its powers on strike and offered no legal opinions, according to anyone familiar with the briefing that claimed anonymity because anonymity was closed.
“Where is the legality here?” D-Ariz, a former Navy combat pilot and astronaut. Senator Mark Kelly said.
“We understand that we need to be able to make sure we can get drug dealers to the US,” he said. “There’s a legal way to do that.”
However, Kelly said he was worried about the military officers involved in the mission. “What situation did the White House put?” he said. “I don’t know if this is legal.”
What Venezuela had to say
After Trump announced the strike, Venezuelan state television showed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Syria Flores walking through the streets of her childhood. The TV host said that Maduro was “spreading patriotic love” when he interacted with his supporters.
Maduro didn’t immediately speak directly to the strike, but accused the United States of “come for Venezuela’s wealth,” including the world’s largest proven oil reserves.
Trump’s vision of national security and the power to enact it
Since Trump’s first term has shifted national security priorities since Trump’s first term has moved away from traditional mooring as a party with a muscular approach to confront his enemy and supporting his allies abroad.
Trump’s America-first approach was the first to launch a new era of our neoisolationism, more consistent with Paul, who leaned more towards libertarianism than traditional defense hawks like Graham.
But in his second semester, Trump is testing his power to enact it, not his national security vision.
Sen. Jim Rich, Republican chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he is “very confident” that the target for the boat bombing was a “group of drug terrorists.”
“I don’t know how many lives were saved by the US president when he pulled that trigger,” Riche said Tuesday. “There were a lot of medications that fell along with that I would have been caught up in America.”
Gestured at the Supreme Court building across from the Capitol, Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said he believes the president’s actions fall under his Article 2 authorities as the administration said the administration was heading towards the United States.
“My intuition is that it’s within the commander of the president,” Holy said.
Briefing for lawmakers
But Sen. Jack Reid of Rhode Island, a top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has called on lawmakers to receive a full briefing from the Trump administration, including legal basis for a military strike.
If the president exceeds his authority, he said, the Senate must consider all available relief measures, including limiting the use of funds for further unauthorized military operations. “Based on secret orders and questionable legal theory, we cannot put the lives of American servicemen at risk,” Reed said.
The former judge’s defense general or naval officer, Jag’s Graham recalled his advice when Trump prepared to return to the White House.
“I don’t care if it’s in the lab or if it’s in Mexico, I don’t care where it is,” Graham recalls. “I said, ‘Find a target that changes the game.”
Asked if the strike on a Venezuela boat was that, Graham said: “Work for me.”
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Associated Press authors Joey Capelletti, Mary Clare Jaronick and Kevin Frecking contributed to the report.
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