Trump has 'determined' the U.S. is in 'armed conflict' with cartels, administration tells Congress

Question

The Trump administration informed Congress in a confidential notice this week that President Donald Trump has "determined" that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and that members of the organizations can be targeted as unlawful combatants.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-determined-us-armed-conflict-cartels-congress-notice-rcna235294

Answer 1

Adding on to this claim with another piece of evidence I found on the BBC. An article posted four days ago on the BBC News provided a major update. United States forces killed four people who were on a boat off the coast of Venezuela, who were allegedly trafficking drugs. The article added that some international lawyers have described these attacks as a violation of international law. However, the United States hasn't provided information regarding the identities of the people who were on board and killed. The article also said, "The US government had now decided it was in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels". The Venezuelan president has previously commented that his country will defend itself in the face of US aggression. Overall seems like an accurate claim across two news sources, which makes the claim stronger.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn0xvpxk9dqo

Comments

They have multiple credible sources here there is an article from NBC on the original comment and also an article from BBC on the reply. Both of these sources are credible. I also can confirm that I have checked out these articles because I have been seeing reports in this conflict on social media recently, and was curious to see what was going on.

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This is a good answer, citing a credible source that confirms the claim made in the first one, as well as adding additional information and context to the situation. Thanks for the explanation!

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I really liked your clear stance on the claim. The additional information added made the claim more accurate. I thought the quote provided great insight.

Answer 2

Trump and the Trump administration informed congress that the U.S. is in an "armed conflict" with drug cartels and that the members of the organizations can be targeted as "unlawful combatants" according to NBC News. This is true.

According to Center for Strategic and International studies, Trump would determine this just as the U.S. military struck a fourth Venezuelan drug boat a day later on October 2nd. This shows the the administration formally notified congress of its determination that the U.S. is in an armed conflict with drug cartels. CSIS also states, "Air and naval assets have been used for counter drug missions before." This suggests that the U.S. Military is currently using wartime tactics rather than tactics that fall into law enforcement. Wether using these wartime tactics is most efficient is another discussion.

Furthermore, after watching the video, "Trump says US in 'armed conflict' with drug cartels after ordering strikes in Caribbean" I have gained the sense that US forces truly are attacking these cartels. In the video trump addresses the cartels as, "water drugs." Trump acknowledging that these cartels are a problem only enforces the truth that the US is in conflict with the cartels. In the video a Florida congress man Carlos Gimenez states, "I fully support our military operation in the Caribbean to destroy the criminal drug cartels." This is clearly happening.

In conclusion multiple reliable sources confirm that the Trump administration officially informed congress of its determination that the U.S. is in an 'armed conflict' with the drug cartels. The military actions and the statements from government officials further support that this conflict is being dealt as a real and active operation. 

https://www.csis.org/analysis/trumps-war-drug-cartels-interdiction-caribbean-or-invasion-venezuela

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_ZYdFvQcdg

Comments

Great job explaining in different segments giving a thorough and reliable set of evidence to support.

Answer 3

Source: https://theweek.com/politics/trump-drug-cartels-war

Source: https://www.justsecurity.org/121864/early-edition-october-3-2025/

I found another source that seems to be supporting that this claim is in fact real and that they are “use force in self-defense” against these “designated terrorist organizations,” Overall the source seems to be accurate with other sources supporting this belief too with another source I saw from justsecurity stating that President Trump has “determined” that cartels involved in drug trafficking are “nonstate armed groups” the actions of which “constitute an armed attack against the United States” This leads to a strong argument that this claim is true.