(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Donald Trump appeared to formally declare war on drug cartels that for decades have freely smuggled narcotics into the U.S.
The Department of War issued the declaration in what it called a 1230” report to Congress, informing lawmakers that the U.S. is engaged in “non-international armed conflict” with the cartels, the New York Post and leftist New York Times reported Thursday.
A White House official told the Post that the report “is legally mandated … following any incident in which the United States Armed Forces are involved in an attack or hostilities.”
The official added that the “report was issued to Congress following the September 15 strike against a Designated Terrorist Organization. It does not convey any new information.”
It is unclear when the report was issued. It followed Trump’s public boasting of several airstrikes that annihilated four drug-filled boats headed to the U.S. from Venezuela.
Videos posted by the president showed the boats speeding through the Caribbean Sea before being blown away by the U.S. military. At least 17 people were reportedly killed in the airstrikes.
Trump bragged of the strikes in a Monday speech before military officials at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
“If you try to poison our people, we will blow you out of existence,” Trump said of the boats. “That’s the only language they really understand. That’s why you don’t see any more boats on the ocean.”
The strikes came after Trump’s earlier designation of drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
The White House told Congress that the Sept. 15 strike — the latest of its kind — was made at Trump’s direction and in compliance with the law of armed conflict.
It involved U.S. forces striking an “unflagged vessel at a location beyond the territorial seas of any nation.”
According to the White House, the U.S. intelligence community had assessed the vessel was “affiliated with a designated terrorist organization and, at the time, engaged in trafficking illicit drugs, which could ultimately be used to kill Americans.”
It added, “This strike resulted in the destruction of the vessel, the illicit narcotics, and the death of approximately 3 unlawful combatants.”
BE WARNED — IF YOU ARE TRANSPORTING DRUGS THAT CAN KILL AMERICANS, WE ARE HUNTING YOU! The illicit activities by these cartels have wrought DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES ON AMERICAN COMMUNITIES FOR DECADES, killing millions of American Citizens. NO LONGER. pic.twitter.com/XHTDpWp6h7
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 15, 2025
