Hegseth Announces Another ‘Narco-Boat’ Attack After Trump Insists No Declaration Of War Needed

The US military’s strikes on alleged drug boats near Venezuela are growing, and War Secretary Pete Hegseth has just announced another one Friday morning, which marks the third such attack this week, after two boats were destroyed on the Pacific side of Latin America earlier this week.

“Overnight, at the direction of President Trump, the Department of War carried out a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Tren de Aragua (TdA), a Designated Terrorist Organization (DTO), trafficking narcotics in the Caribbean Sea,” Hegseth announced on social media. He said that “all six terrorists” were killed and no American forces were harmed in the new operation. This appears to be at least the ninth such attack - and at least third in less than a week.

Big questions have persisted over just how the US knows it is attacking drug smuggling boats, and not mere fishing vessels. Journalists have been turning up the pressure on the White House to provide evidence.

Hegseth tried to preempt such inquiries in his Friday statement, which continued, “The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics.”

Interestingly, the Pentagon chief noted it was the first strike conducted at night since the anti-Venezuela and anti-drug operations started.

He then reiterated the following message: “If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

President Trump in fielding questions from reporters the day before talked about just ‘killing’ drug smugglers and that no declaration of war or any kind of legal process for that matter is needed…

“I’m not going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. “I think we’re just doing to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We’re going to kill them, you know, they’re going to be like, dead.”

JUST IN: President Trump fires back after reporter asks him why he doesn’t get approval from Congress for taking out narco-terrorists.

Reporter: Why not just ask for a declaration of war?

Trump: I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country.… pic.twitter.com/N1owgnvt6V

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 23, 2025

Geopolitical commentator Arnaud Bertrand has pointed out that Trump just honestly and openly reveals the face of US Empire:

People are in shock over this but Trump, as per his habit, is only putting in blunt terms what all US presidents have been doing for decades. “Nobel Peace Prize Obama” is the one who industrialized extrajudicial killings, officially ordering 540 drone strikes during his presidency (https://cfr.org/blog/obamas-final-drone-strike-data), so 1 to 2 a week on average, killing thousands of people with no due process whatsoever.

Indeed, Obama even one time killed a 16-year old American citizen and resident of Colorado by drone strike in Yemen, and he and his press secretary merely shrugged it off.

Still, Trump has some serious questions to answer, and a handful of Congressmen including Sen. Rand Paul try to reel in these latest foreign adventures off Latin America.