The Trump administration believes it can continue its lethal military campaign against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean without congressional authorization, even as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are increasingly frustrated that the administration hasn’t provided a legal justification for the attacks.
The administration doesn’t believe the strikes rise to the level of “hostilities” covered under the War Powers Resolution, a 1973 law requiring the president to terminate any military operations after 60 days if they aren’t authorized by Congress, according to a senior administration official.
The strikes don’t endanger U.S. servicemembers, because the alleged drug-smuggling boats are being struck by drones far from naval vessels carrying Americans, the official said. “Even at its broadest, the WPR has been understood to apply to placing U.S. servicemembers in harm’s way,” the official said.
The official cited two past Office of Legal Counsel opinions discussing military deployments, one from 1984 and one from 1996. The latter opinion discussed President Bill Clinton’s authority to unilaterally deploy 20,000 peacekeeping troops to Haiti.
The U.S. military has killed roughly 65 people in 15 airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean so far, most recently during a Saturday strike in the Caribbean. The administration has told Congress that President Trump determined the operations are part of a noninternational armed conflict against alleged drug cartels that his administration has designated foreign terrorist organizations.
Republicans and Democrats in Congress have expressed frustration with the administration’s lack of transparency on the boat strikes. In a rare bipartisan effort on Friday, the Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D., R.I.) said they have twice written to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asking for copies of the execute orders, legal justifications and lists of designated terrorist organizations tied to the Pentagon’s actions against drug-trafficking cartels.
Senate Democrats, including Intelligence Committee ranking member Mark Warner (D., Va.), also criticized the administration for briefing only Republicans on the strikes.
“That is not the way the system is supposed to work . . . when we’re putting troops in harm’s way,” Warner said on Sunday on CBS. “I’ve got an aircraft carrier from Norfolk that’s in the Caribbean right now. How do I answer the families of those sailors about whether this operation is even legal?”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), a constitutional lawyer, didn’t directly answer when asked Sunday whether the White House was on solid legal ground in conducting the strikes. “What the president and the administration are doing is protecting the homeland. That’s one of his No. 1 responsibilities,” he said on Fox. He added: “Congress will continue to have oversight.”
