Democrats are more outraged by President Trump’s remodeling of the White House than by his use of the U.S. military to kill people in international waters and his threats to carry out military strikes inside a sovereign nation. While these fools mock his decorative taste, Trump is crossing lines that no president should be allowed to even approach.
His administration’s decision to classify cartel members as terrorists and use the military to kill people that may be tied to drug cartels, in my opinion, is a genuine abuse of power. This marks the first time, I believe, his actions have crossed into territory that could be impeachable. Yet for some unknown reason, Democrats fail to recognize the gravity of what is happening. They are treating this as merely another questionable Trump move instead of the dangerous expansion of executive authority that it is.
In January, the White House issued an Executive Order that designates Mexican drug cartels and their affiliates as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” (FTOs).
Section 1. Purpose. This order creates a process by which certain international cartels (the Cartels) and other organizations will be designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, consistent with section 219 of the INA (8 U.S.C. 1189), or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, consistent with IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702) and Executive Order 13224 of September 23, 2001 (Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism), as amended.
(a) International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime, with activities encompassing:
(i) convergence between themselves and a range of extra-hemispheric actors, from designated foreign-terror organizations to antagonistic foreign governments;
(ii) complex adaptive systems, characteristic of entities engaged in insurgency and asymmetric warfare; and
(iii) infiltration into foreign governments across the Western Hemisphere.
Trump Executive Order
This move changes the meaning of terrorism itself. Historically, terrorism has referred to groups using violence to influence governments and/or populations. Drug cartels are criminal enterprises driven by profit. They use violence to retain control of their territory and operations. The definition shift grants the president authority to use military force anywhere in the world under the guise of counterterrorism. It allows the executive branch to treat criminal suspects as enemy combatants without due process. If the government can call drug cartels terrorists it can call anyone terrorists.
Taking a preemptive lethal strike against an alleged drug boat continues the White House’s effort to blur the lines between law enforcement and the U.S. military’s missions and authorities. The administration has justified the strike by describing it as “against a designated terrorist organization . . . in defense of U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations.” This vague language—which leans heavily on labeling Tren de Aragua a terrorist group akin to al Qaeda— is rooted in wartime, not law enforcement rules. Labeling a drug cartel a terrorist organization and killing 11 members on a vessel, which may or may not have been destined for the United States, under the guise of an amorphous “national interest” is an extraordinary and unprecedented assertion of presidential power.
Just Security
This recent expansion of presidential power began after the September 11 attacks and the passage of the Patriot Act. That legislation enabled the government to stretch surveillance and detention powers far beyond traditional limits, with little transparency. Trump is now extending that even further. As the Associated Press reported and covered by Al Jazeera, a leaked administration memo claims the U.S. is in a “non-international armed conflict” with the cartels. Using that language, the president could order strikes anywhere against these groups, even inside sovereign nations, with no more than an assertion of self-defense. There is an alarming lack of evidence and Americans are told to just take the word of officials that these targets deserve to be treated as terrorists.
Despite this, Democrats have said almost nothing. Instead they can’t shut up about the East Wing of the White House. Somehow they expect people to believe the White House has never been modified. Even if Trump is stretching his authority to remodel the White House it pales in comparison to the importance of using the U.S. military to kill people, in our name, with no authority. When the U.S. military kills people we the voters have to bear the ultimate responsibility for allowing it. The Democrats been salivating since 2016 for a reason to get Trump out of office and aren’t capitalizing on this opportunity. The must be complicit.
If Congress allows Trump’s actions to stand, it will be legitimizing the use of military force based on executive opinion. The use of military power to kill or detain people without evidence undermines the foundation of our republic. These operations stretch legal boundaries and risk escalating conflicts with other nations. And Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize… sheesh!
This, in my opinion, may be an impeachable offense. Congress should demand hearings, transparency, and accountability. If they don’t act, they share the responsibility when a future president uses these powers against Americans citizens. The Trump Administration’s decision to redefine terrorism and use military force without proof is the clearest example of presidential overreach. It is a direct challenge to constitutional limits.
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