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by Jacob G. Hornberger
September 16, 2025
In yesterday’s blog post, I pointed out how we now live in a country in which the president and his national-security establishment wield the power to kill people who are suspected of violating U.S. drug laws. That fact was manifested by the U.S. military’s killing of eleven Venezuelans who were suspected of using a boat in international waters to transport drugs that are considered illegal inside the United States. Based on some sort of information that Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA have decided to keep secret, Trump issued the order to snuff out the lives of those Venezuelans, and the military dutifully and loyally carried out the order by firing some sort of projectile that destroyed the boat and killed all 11 occupants.
As I pointed out in my article, it is my opinion that those killings amount to nothing less than legalized murder. Violating drug laws is not a death-penalty offense. Moreover, under U.S. law, deadly force cannot be exercised against a person except in a case of self-defense. The boat was not firing on anyone and, in fact, according to the New York Times, had turned around and was heading back to Venezuela when U.S. forces fired on it. That’s the equivalent of shooting someone in the back, an action that is strictly prohibited under America’s system of criminal jurisprudence.
Yesterday, Trump announced that U.S. forces, on his orders, killed three more Venezuelans who were traveling by boat in international waters. Trump relied on the same rationale — that U.S. officials were convinced that the boat was carrying drugs that are illegal under U.S. law.
No search and seizure, no arrest, no indictment, no due process of law, and no trial by jury. Just Trump and the military serving as judge, jury, and executioner. That’s now the state of the American decades-old, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual “war on drugs.”
Trump and the military are making it clear that official drug-war murders are now a normal part of American life, much like they were during the Philippine regime of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently standing trial before the International Criminal Court for allegedly ordering and authorizing extrajudicial drug-war murders in that country.
It is revealing that, according to Reuters, Trump once stated the following to Duterte: “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that” and “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
Let’s assume that the FBI learned that a man named John Doe had crossed state lines with stolen merchandise. Let’s also assume that Trump ordered the FBI to ambush and shoot and kill the man as he was traveling down the highway. Does anyone doubt that Trump and the FBI would be guilty of murder? Under what legal authority could they avoid being charged with and convicted of murder? That he’s the president and, therefore, can murder anyone he wants? That the FBI agents were simply following the president’s orders — i.e., the defense employed at Nuremberg?
In that case, there is no question but that both Trump and those FBI agents should be criminally indicted, prosecuted, convicted, and punished. No one, including the president and the FBI, is above the law, including the law of murder. Moreover, I would hope that most everyone would agree that Trump should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office and that those FBI agents should be fired.
Let’s change our hypothetical. Suppose Trump were to order the Pentagon to fire a missile at the man and that the Pentagon loyally obeyed the president’s order. Does that change the situation? Of course not. Why would it? At that point, the military is simply serving in a police capacity. It is standing in the stead of the FBI. But the act of murder remains the same.
So, why would Trump choose to have the military carry out the strike rather than the FBI? The reason is the same as why he has the military, rather than the DEA, kill those Venezuelans on the high seas. The reason is that he knows that while the Supreme Court will take up a case involving murder by the DEA or the FBI, there is no possibility at all that the Court will buck the national-security establishment. The Court’s deferential policy stretches all the way back to at least the Kennedy assassination. Once the Court realizes that the Pentagon, the CIA, or the NSA are involved in any extrajudicial killing, the Court will figure out a way to butt out, such as by coming up with strange legal doctrines, like the “political-question doctrine” or “lack of judicial expertise in foreign affairs.”
There is another factor that Trump is employing to ensure that he gets away with drug-war murder. He’s referring to the victims as “narco-terrorists.” Why is he doing that? Because he’s cleverly relying on the post-9/11 claim that when it comes to terrorism, federal officials supposedly wield the power to kill anyone they suspect of being a “terrorist.” And under this concept, guess who gets the final word on who is a “terrorist”? You guessed it — the president and his national-security establishment.
But terrorism, like drug smuggling, is a criminal offense under the U.S. Code, not an act of war. That’s why accused terrorists, just like accused drug dealers, are prosecuted in federal court. But because U.S. officials got away with treating terrorism as an “act of war” after the 9/11 attacks, Trump cleverly wraps his drug-war murders in a cloak of waging a dual, simultaneous war — a “war on drugs” and a “war on terrorism.” In the process, he knows that the federal courts will, again, never interfere, given that it’s the national-security establishment that is involved.
What few people are realizing is that Trump’s rationale and justification for his drug-war murders now necessarily apply not just to the high seas but also right here in the domestic United States. It’s a classic case of destroying freedom even more here at home in the name of keeping us “safe” abroad.
www.fff.org
________
Related:
High Crimes On The High Seas
Why Shouldn’t Trump Be Convicted and Impeached for Murder?
September 16, 2025
In yesterday’s blog post, I pointed out how we now live in a country in which the president and his national-security establishment wield the power to kill people who are suspected of violating U.S. drug laws. That fact was manifested by the U.S. military’s killing of eleven Venezuelans who were suspected of using a boat in international waters to transport drugs that are considered illegal inside the United States. Based on some sort of information that Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA have decided to keep secret, Trump issued the order to snuff out the lives of those Venezuelans, and the military dutifully and loyally carried out the order by firing some sort of projectile that destroyed the boat and killed all 11 occupants.
As I pointed out in my article, it is my opinion that those killings amount to nothing less than legalized murder. Violating drug laws is not a death-penalty offense. Moreover, under U.S. law, deadly force cannot be exercised against a person except in a case of self-defense. The boat was not firing on anyone and, in fact, according to the New York Times, had turned around and was heading back to Venezuela when U.S. forces fired on it. That’s the equivalent of shooting someone in the back, an action that is strictly prohibited under America’s system of criminal jurisprudence.
Yesterday, Trump announced that U.S. forces, on his orders, killed three more Venezuelans who were traveling by boat in international waters. Trump relied on the same rationale — that U.S. officials were convinced that the boat was carrying drugs that are illegal under U.S. law.
No search and seizure, no arrest, no indictment, no due process of law, and no trial by jury. Just Trump and the military serving as judge, jury, and executioner. That’s now the state of the American decades-old, ongoing, never-ending, perpetual “war on drugs.”
Trump and the military are making it clear that official drug-war murders are now a normal part of American life, much like they were during the Philippine regime of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who is currently standing trial before the International Criminal Court for allegedly ordering and authorizing extrajudicial drug-war murders in that country.
It is revealing that, according to Reuters, Trump once stated the following to Duterte: “Many countries have the problem, we have a problem, but what a great job you are doing and I just wanted to call and tell you that” and “I just wanted to congratulate you because I am hearing of the unbelievable job on the drug problem.”
Let’s assume that the FBI learned that a man named John Doe had crossed state lines with stolen merchandise. Let’s also assume that Trump ordered the FBI to ambush and shoot and kill the man as he was traveling down the highway. Does anyone doubt that Trump and the FBI would be guilty of murder? Under what legal authority could they avoid being charged with and convicted of murder? That he’s the president and, therefore, can murder anyone he wants? That the FBI agents were simply following the president’s orders — i.e., the defense employed at Nuremberg?
In that case, there is no question but that both Trump and those FBI agents should be criminally indicted, prosecuted, convicted, and punished. No one, including the president and the FBI, is above the law, including the law of murder. Moreover, I would hope that most everyone would agree that Trump should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office and that those FBI agents should be fired.
Let’s change our hypothetical. Suppose Trump were to order the Pentagon to fire a missile at the man and that the Pentagon loyally obeyed the president’s order. Does that change the situation? Of course not. Why would it? At that point, the military is simply serving in a police capacity. It is standing in the stead of the FBI. But the act of murder remains the same.
So, why would Trump choose to have the military carry out the strike rather than the FBI? The reason is the same as why he has the military, rather than the DEA, kill those Venezuelans on the high seas. The reason is that he knows that while the Supreme Court will take up a case involving murder by the DEA or the FBI, there is no possibility at all that the Court will buck the national-security establishment. The Court’s deferential policy stretches all the way back to at least the Kennedy assassination. Once the Court realizes that the Pentagon, the CIA, or the NSA are involved in any extrajudicial killing, the Court will figure out a way to butt out, such as by coming up with strange legal doctrines, like the “political-question doctrine” or “lack of judicial expertise in foreign affairs.”
There is another factor that Trump is employing to ensure that he gets away with drug-war murder. He’s referring to the victims as “narco-terrorists.” Why is he doing that? Because he’s cleverly relying on the post-9/11 claim that when it comes to terrorism, federal officials supposedly wield the power to kill anyone they suspect of being a “terrorist.” And under this concept, guess who gets the final word on who is a “terrorist”? You guessed it — the president and his national-security establishment.
But terrorism, like drug smuggling, is a criminal offense under the U.S. Code, not an act of war. That’s why accused terrorists, just like accused drug dealers, are prosecuted in federal court. But because U.S. officials got away with treating terrorism as an “act of war” after the 9/11 attacks, Trump cleverly wraps his drug-war murders in a cloak of waging a dual, simultaneous war — a “war on drugs” and a “war on terrorism.” In the process, he knows that the federal courts will, again, never interfere, given that it’s the national-security establishment that is involved.
What few people are realizing is that Trump’s rationale and justification for his drug-war murders now necessarily apply not just to the high seas but also right here in the domestic United States. It’s a classic case of destroying freedom even more here at home in the name of keeping us “safe” abroad.
More Drug-War Murders on the High Seas – The Future of Freedom Foundation
In yesterday’s blog post, I pointed out how we now live in a country in which the president and his national-security establishment wield the power to kill people who are suspected of violating U.S. drug laws. That fact was manifested by the U.S. military’s killing of eleven Venezuelans who were...
www.fff.org
________
Related:
High Crimes On The High Seas
Why Shouldn’t Trump Be Convicted and Impeached for Murder?
