Tag: donald trump

Defending the Summary Execution of Suspected Drug Smugglers, Trump Declares an ‘Armed Conflict’

This week, President Donald Trump sought to justify his new policy of summarily executing suspected drug smugglers by declaring that his targets are “unlawful combatants” in an “armed conflict” with the United States. But that terminology, which Trump deployed in a notice to Congress, does not change the reality that he has authorized the military murder of criminal suspects who pose no immediate threat of violence.

So far, Trump has ordered three attacks on speedboats in the Caribbean Sea that he said were carrying illegal drugs, killing a total of 17 people. The first attack was a September 2 drone strike that killed 11 people on a boat that reportedly “appeared to have turned around before the attack started because the people onboard had apparently spotted a military aircraft stalking it.” On September 15, U.S. forces blew up another speedboat in the Caribbean, killing three people whom Trump described as “confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela.” Four days later, Trump announced a third attack that he said killed three people “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” who were “conducting narcotrafficking.”

Contrary to Trump’s implication, that designation does not turn murder into self-defense. “The State Department designation merely triggers the government’s ability to implement asset controls and other economic sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and other statutes,” Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman noted after the first attack on a suspected drug boat. “It has nothing to do with authorizing [the Defense Department] to engage in targeted killings…which is why the U.S. military doesn’t go around killing members of all designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”

According to White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly, Trump’s literalization of the war on drugs is fully consistent with international law. “The president acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores,” she told The New York Times this week. “He is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans.”

That framing is logically, morally, and legally nonsensical. The truth is that Americans like to consume psychoactive substances that legislators have deemed intolerable, and criminal organizations are happy to profit from that demand. The fact that Americans who use illegal drugs sometimes die as a result—a hazard magnified by the prohibition policy that Trump is so eager to enforce—does not transform the people who supply those drugs into murderers.

If it did, alcohol producers and distributors, who supply a product implicated in an estimated 178,000 deaths a year in the United States, would likewise be guilty of murder. And by Trump’s logic, they would be subject to the death penalty based on nothing more than the allegation that they were involved in the alcohol trade.

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Trump orders Israel to stop Gaza strikes after Hamas agrees to release Israeli hostages

President Donald Trump on Friday ordered Israel to stop bombing the Gaza Strip after Hamas said it accepted some elements of the president’s plan to end the nearly two-year war and return all remaining hostages who were taken during the deadly attack.

Based on the Statement just issued by Hamas, I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump said. “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly … this is about long sought PEACE in the Middle East.”

In a video Trump later posted on social media, he thanked multiple countries that helped him achieve the deal, including Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, among others.

So many people fought so hard,” he said in the footage. “This is a big day. We’ll see how it all turns out. We have to get the final word down and concrete. Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home to their parents and having some of the hostages, unfortunately, you know the condition they’re in, come home likewise to their parents because their parents wanted them just as much as though that young man or young woman were alive.”

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Trump’s Argentina bailout pits two competing MAGA factions against one another

President Donald Trump’s attempt to give Argentina’s fledgling economy financial assistance is creating a headache for him back in the U.S. as part of his base — farmers — are upset about the possibility of bailing out a country that is competing for a major crop — soybean exports to China.

Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promised a possible $20 billion aid package to Argentina’s leader Javier Milei. They argue the plan is needed to stabilize a major Trump and U.S. ally ahead of October elections that are important for Milei to retain power. At the same time, some of Milei’s policies are helping U.S. investors and negatively impacting American soybean producers.

Investors and hedge funds have bought into Milei’s stewardship of the bedraggled country. Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price Group and Pimco all own bonds in Argentina, according to Bloomberg. In September, traders began selling off investments there after Milei lost some crucial local elections over corruption scandals.

News of U.S. help boosted some of the assets, but Argentina’s currency is still performing poorly among the stable of international currencies.

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FAFO: Karoline Leavitt says President Trump is Planning to Cut Federal Funding to Portland Amid Violence From “Leftwing Domestic Terrorists” – “We Will Not Fund States That Allow Anarchy”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Friday addressed the incident in Portland, Oregon, where Republican journalist Nick Sortor was swarmed and attacked by Antifa thugs, then arrested by Portland police. 

The Gateway Pundit reported on the incident, which is now under investigation by the Department of Justice.

“Portland: it’s FO [Find Out] time. Buckle up,” Assistant Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who will lead the investigation, said in an X post.

Leavitt announced to reporters on Friday that not only has the Portland Police Department come into the DOJ’s crosshairs, but President Trump is now taking steps to cut federal aid to the city, citing the lawlessness in the streets.

“Since June alone,” she said, “radical left-wing lunatics have violently breached the ICE facility by using a stop sign as a battering ram, hurled explosives and other projectiles at law enforcement, repeatedly assault and dox officers, berate their law-abiding neighbors, and have even rolled out a guillotine in front of the ICE facility.”

In addition to cutting funding, “there will also be an additional surge of federal resources to Portland immediately, including enhanced CBP and ICE resources. Law and order will prevail, and President Trump will make sure of it,” Leavitt said.

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Unprecedented US Military Build-Up Near Venezuela Is Sign Of Possible War

Venezuela continues to be on high alert given the growing number of US military assets parked off its coast in the southern Caribbean. Venezuelan Defense Minister General Vladimir Padrinohas recently said “We’re watching them, I want you to know. And I want you to know that this doesn’t intimidate us. It doesn’t intimidate the people of Venezuela.”

He noted that American military “planes flying close to our Caribbean Sea is a vulgarity, a provocation, a threat to the security of the nation” – further calling it “military harassment.”

This comes as President Trump updated Congress on the situation in a memo this week. It stated the US was now in “a non-international armed conflict” with the cartels, which his administration earlier designated as terrorist organizations. 

Sufficient Pentagon forces have been assembled which would allow for the capture a strategic infrastructure in Venezuela, such as a port or airport, fresh reports say.

Additionally, there’s this fresh development previewed in Newsweek: “a platoon of U.S. Navy SEALs—typically comprising 16 personnel—will conduct joint drills this month with approximately 40 Argentine tactical divers,” according to a US Southern Command spokesperson.

The same publication lists five signs that possible war with Venezuela could be looming:

  • F-35B Jets in Puerto Rico
  • Pentagon Imagery
  • Cargo and Naval Deployments
  • Special Operations
  • US military units in the Caribbean

All of this also allowed The Washington Examiner to speculate in a major Thursday report, saying it “understands that military planners believe the assembled forces are now sufficient to seize and hold key strategic facilities such as ports and airfields on Venezuelan territory (the Washington Examiner is withholding some details for national security reasons).”

It adds: “US control over such locations would allow for the increased, sustained projection of U.S. military power into Venezuela from defensible positions.”

Washington Examiner further notes that Pentagon maneuvers and potential conflict preparations have been an open secret:

A Defense Department readout from late August notes how a training exercise off the U.S. Virgin Islands saw “six special tactics airmen parachuted into the Caribbean Sea with an inflatable boat, 3 miles off the shore. … Eleven more combat controllers and pararescuemen then jumped directly into [an airport] from the same aircraft, with both forces combining to take control of the airfield.”

While the Trump administration has vowed to to not start new wars – and the president has of late been boasting of solving several conflicts – Washington has been reviving ‘war on drugs’ type imagery and a rationale for the military build-up. Meanwhile Friday saw another attack on an alleged smuggling vessel in regional waters:

US STRIKES ANOTHER VESSEL IN WATERS OFF VENEZUELAN COAST

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Hegseth Announces 4th Deadly Strike On ‘Narco-Terrorist’ Boat Off Venezuela

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth announced Friday another military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat off Venezuela which killed four people.

This marks at least the fourth such attack, and after President Trump formally notified Congress this week that the US was entering a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels. Hegseth made clear on social media, “These strikes will continue until the attacks on the American people are over!!!!”

Hegseth affirmed in a social media post that he had directed the latest strike on Trump’s orders, and released overhead drone video of the attack.

“The strike was conducted in international waters just off the coast of Venezuela while the vessel was transporting substantial amounts of narcotics – headed to America to poison our people,” Hegseth said on X.

“Our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route,” he added.

Trump’s rationale for the attacks in the aforementioned memo states the cartels are “non-state armed groups” whose actions smuggling drugs “constitute an armed attack against the United States”.

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Putin claps back at Trump’s ‘paper tiger’ comment

Following accusations from President Donald Trump that Russia is a “paper tiger” in the war against Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not hold back.

“We are fighting against the entire bloc of NATO and we keep moving, keep advancing and feel confident and we are a paper tiger; what NATO itself is?” Putin said. “A paper tiger? Go and deal with this paper tiger then.”

The fiery comments come as the White House is considering approving a request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Tomahawk cruise missiles that would allow Ukraine to hit targets deep inside Russia.

During a forum of international foreign policy experts in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, Putin said this request would bring a “new stage of escalation” between Russia and the U.S.

However, he added that with the missiles, not much would change in their air defenses.

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“Invasion From Within”: Trump’s Plan to Use the Military in U.S. Cities

On Tuesday, President Trump addressed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his war secretary, and senior commanders (transcript is available here) at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia. The session was convened to review military readiness, budget priorities, and upcoming initiatives. The agenda included new weapons programs, expanded force structure, and the administration’s shift in doctrine under the restored name “Department of War.” It was both a policy briefing and a directive, outlining the missions Trump expects the armed forces to undertake in the coming year.

However, the most striking element of the address was not the budget figures or hardware announcements, but the language Trump used to describe the nation’s internal situation. He warned that America is under assault, not from abroad but from within:

We’re under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways…

The military, he stressed, should defend not only the nation’s borders but its streets, treating domestic disturbances as a theater of war.

D.C. as a Case Study

Trump held up Washington, D.C., as a proof of concept for his vision of military intervention in American cities. On August 11, he signed Executive Order 14333 placing the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under federal control. The order also mobilized the D.C. National Guard under federal command and called in Guard units from other states to “augment the mission.” Trump justified the takeover by citing a “crime emergency,” even though both independent and official data (see here and here) showed violent crime in the capital was already at or near a 30-year low.

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Donald Trump’s Dangerous Tilt Towards War at Home and Abroad

Donald Trump’s speech yesterday at Quantico to the assembled General Officers of the US militaray was a tour de farce of narcissism (not a tour de force). His attempt to emulate the late George C. Scott in his iconic role in Patton was a bust because, instead of delivering a pithy, punchy message, Trump droned on for more than an hour repeating many of his standard lines — e.g., this war never would have started if I was President — but he did so with little enthusiasm. Definitely a low-energy moment.

Although the generals and admirals assembled sat in stony silence throughout his rambling address, none of them had the courage to stand up, walk out and resign in protest. It was a bad bobble head convention… And a lot of bald heads to boot. They are more interested in securing a lucrative retirement package than they are in refusing to obey an illegal order — i.e., bombing a civilian boat that was allegedly carrying drugs that had not fired on US ships or personnel.

In christening the Department of Defense as the new Department of War, Trump is not sending a message of peaceful intentions to the other nations that inhabit this world. Just the opposite. While he appears to have handed off the responsibility for waging war against Russia to Europe, there are disturbing indicators that he has not fully disengaged from the dream of defeating Russia. For example, just a few days after vowing never to refer to Russia as a paper tiger, he did it again.

Some European leaders are still toying with the idea of seizing Russian assets. We have this today in a short piece from Bloomberg: Moscow prepares a counterstrike in case of confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets. Here are the key points:

▪️Russia may nationalize and quickly sell foreign assets under a new privatization mechanism in response to any European moves to seize Russian assets abroad, the publication writes, Bloomberg reported a source close to the government.

▪️On Tuesday, Putin signed a decree allowing accelerated sale of state assets in a special procedure.

▪️If the European Union starts seizing Russian assets, Moscow may respond with symmetrical measures.

▪️Hundreds of Western companies operating in various sectors — from banking to consumer goods production — still operate in Russia, including UniCredit SpA, Raiffeisen Bank International AG, PepsiCo Inc, and Mondelez International Inc., the agency reminds.

▪️So far, Russia has refrained from nationalizing the assets of international corporations. Instead, it has taken some companies under temporary management.

Meanwhile, France appears to have grabbed the war-flag and is leading the charge in stirring up an expanded confrontation with Russia. The French Navy detained the tanker Boracay off the country’s coast on Tuesday, allegedly from the so-called Russian “shadow fleet.” The vessel is under sanctions by the UK and the EU. Earlier this year, it was already detained in Estonia for sailing without a valid flag.

According to MarineTraffic, the Boracay departed on September 20 from the Russian port of Primorsk carrying oil, passed through the Baltic Sea, went around Denmark from the north, entered the North Sea, and proceeded through the English Channel. The tanker is currently anchored near Saint-Nazaire in France.

In tandem with this, the French Army Chief of Staff announced that French troops must be ready for the start of intense warfare as early as tonight. This may be in response to a report from Borzzikman today that the Russians struck a maritime target in Odessa and killed 20 French engineers.

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US Demands of Iran Make Another War Likely

The Trump administration is committed to ramping up the pressure on Iran, The Washington Post has reported, and the demands that the US is making of Tehran make another US-Israeli war on the country more likely.

According to the report, the US is demanding that Iran accept four conditions as a baseline for negotiations, including committing to “meaningful” and direct talks, agreeing to end its uranium enrichment program, imposing curbs on its ballistic missile program, and ceasing funding of its allies in the region.

Before the 12-Day War, Iran made it clear that it wouldn’t end its uranium enrichment altogether, although it was willing to reduce its enrichment to much lower levels and was exploring the idea of an enrichment consortium involving other regional countries. But those negotiations were abruptly ended when Israel launched the war on June 13, two days before Washington and Tehran were set to hold another round of talks.

In the wake of the US-Israeli bombing campaign, Iran has maintained that it won’t give up its nuclear enrichment program, framing it as a matter of national pride. Iranian officials have also made clear they will never accept a deal that would impose limits on its ballistic missile program since the weapons are the only real deterrent Tehran has.

The Post report comes after the UN Security Council reimposed sanctions on Iran under the “snapback” mechanism under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which was triggered by France, the UK, and Germany. Both Iran and Russia have rejected the reimposition of the sanctions as “illegal,” pointing to the fact that the US quit the nuclear deal back in 2018.

Arab officials told the Post that they’re worried another war could be coming. “The region today cannot go through the same Iranian-Israeli war or the other wars of the last two years. The cost is too high,” a senior Arab government official told the paper.

Israeli officials have been threatening that another attack on Iran may come soon. “We are monitoring what is happening across the Middle East and in Iran and are preparing for a variety of scenarios and options; one of them is that we may need to act again against Iran,” a senior IDF official told the Israeli newspaper Maariv on Monday.

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