Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has once again raised eyebrows by publicly questioning President Trump’s latest show of military force, this time over a Venezuelan drug vessel blown to pieces in the Caribbean.
The Gateway Pundit reported in August that Trump ‘secretly’ signed a directive ordering the Pentagon to start using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels.
The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels. This means that US troops could find themselves in countries like Mexico battling the Sinaloa Cartel, for example.
As TGP readers know, Trump has long floated the possibility of sending the most powerful fighting force on the planet right into the home turf of the foreign drug lords. The president also previously offered to send troops to Mexico to fight the notorious cartels.
In addition to Mexico, communist Venezuela has refused to lift a finger to combat the problem.
Earlier Tuesday, President Trump proudly told reporters that U.S. forces had successfully destroyed a narco-terrorist boat smuggling drugs north.
Trump: When you leave the room, you’ll see that we just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat. And you’ll be seeing that, and you’ll be reading about that. It just happened moments ago.
And our great General, Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who has been so incredible, including what took place in Iran, knocking out potential nuclear power for long time to come— I think within a month they would have had it if we didn’t do what we did.
But He gave us a little bit of a briefing, and you’ll see. And there’s more where that came from.
We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time, and we just— these came out of Venezuela and [are] coming out very heavily from Venezuela. A lot of things are coming out of Venezuela. So, we took it out, and you’ll get to see that after this meeting is over.
In an interview with Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt, Paul admitted nobody would “shed a tear” for dead drug dealers but warned against the dangerous precedent:
Rob Schmitt:
Of that cartel boat — which I personally think is a brilliant deterrent to this activity — is that how you see it?Sen. Rand Paul:
I guess it’s hard to have any sympathy for drug dealers trying to import product into our country. But at the same time, you might ask the question: where does it end? Are we the world’s policeman — the international policemen? Are we going to be blowing people up off the coast all around the world trying to interdict?Really, I’m not sure we have the finances to be the world’s policemen. So, on the face of it, it sounds good. Nobody’s going to have any lost love for a bunch of drugs going down in the ocean and killing some gang members. At the same time, really, where does it end? And is it really the constitutional duty of our government to be policing international drug trade everywhere around the world?
Rob Schmitt:
If it’s a trend — sending drugs into this country — there’s obviously a line there. I don’t think we’re going to be bombing people taking drugs from Africa into Europe, right?Sen. Rand Paul:
Well, no. If it’s coming into our country, I think interdicting drugs coming into our country, absolutely — there is a U.S. interest in that. But that’s a real question. I don’t know the details of where the drugs were going. They may well have been coming to our country, but this was done off the coast of another country. So it is a little bit different. It is unique.It hadn’t really been done in decades, where we have an action against another group inside their territorial waters.
WATCH:
Rand Paul raises concerns over Trump’s strike on Venezuelan drug boats: “It’s hard to have sympathy for drug dealers, but where does it end? Are we the world’s policemen? I’m not sure we have the finances to be the world’s policemen.” pic.twitter.com/ULnAnzSz2r
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 4, 2025
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