WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said any country trafficking illegal drugs into the United States could be attacked.
“Anybody that’s doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack,” Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House, after raising the issue of cocaine from Colombia.
The United States has “only just begun” targeting alleged drug-trafficking boats, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted on Tuesday despite a growing outcry over strikes that critics say amount to extrajudicial killings.
Hegseth and President Donald Trump´s administration have come under fire particularly over an incident in which US forces launched a follow-up strike on the wreckage of a vessel that had already been hit, reportedly killing two survivors.
Both the White House and Pentagon have sought to distance Hegseth from that decision -- which some lawmakers have said could be a war crime -- instead pinning the blame on the admiral who directly oversaw the operation.
“We´ve only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they´ve been poisoning the American people,” Hegseth said during a Tuesday cabinet meeting.
“We´ve had a bit of a pause because it´s hard to find boats to strike right now -- which is the entire point, right? Deterrence has to matter,” Hegseth added.
