President Donald Trump sent an unapologetic message when questioned about the American strikes on alleged narco-terrorists in the Pacific Ocean.
Trump met NATO chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday a week after he met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We have legal authority. We’re allowed to do that. And if we do by land, we may go back to Congress. This is a national security problem. They killed 300,000 Americans last year. Drugs,” Trump said when asked by a reporter if the United States has legal authority to do so.
This is the eighth known strike Trump ordered on an alleged drug vessel in Latin American waters Tuesday evening which killed two individuals.
On Tuesday evening, the ship was struck on the Pacific side of South America, two U.S. officials told CBS News.
At least 34 people have been killed in the U.S. strikes on alleged drug trafficking ships beginning in September. Every other strike occurred in the Caribbean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed on the attack via X Wednesday.
Trump’s meeting with Rutte comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s close associate disclosed that Russia will not accept a ceasefire in the Ukraine war unless certain conditions are met.
“Russia will NOT agree to a ceasefire until the root causes of the conflict in Ukraine are resolved,” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a statement.
This follows the POTUS walking back on his decision to meet with Putin in Hungary.
Rutte has indicated “total confidence” in Trump, stating that the US President is “the only one” who can reach an agreement to end the Kremlin’s devastating invasion of Kyiv which has been ongoing for nearly four years.
The Trump administration has reportedly eased a significant restriction on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range missiles, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The policy shift took place without public announcement.
The shift followed Ukraine using a British-made Storm Shadow cruise missile to hit a Russian plant in Bryansk that manufactured explosives and rocket fuel.
Ukraine’s General Staff hailed it as a “successful hit” that breached Moscow’s air defenses.
