Since September 2025 the U.S. military, on his orders, has carried out at least 16 strikes on small boats it said were carrying drugs, killing more than 60 people in international waters, with no arrests, trials, or public evidence. Administration officials conceded to senators they had no legal justification for expanding the strikes onto Venezuelan soil, and the UN human rights chief called them extrajudicial killings. Two Republican senators, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski, broke with Trump to vote to stop the strikes; Paul said the Constitution demands “deliberation before war.”
SourcesThe bipartisan vote to stop it (Stars and Stripes) · Paul (R): deliberation before war (U.S. Senate) · UN: extrajudicial killings (PBS)
