Top Dem Defends Trump’s Military Strike On Drug Smugglers In Blow to Schumer

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) broke ranks with his party this week, offering strong support for President Donald Trump’s order to use military force against suspected cartel drug smugglers — even as the New York Times claimed the action lacked “legal precedent.”

“Overdosing takes 100,000+ American lives every year. Cartels wage this war against our nation everyday. Maybe it’s time for our nation to push back and hold the cartels fully accountable,” Fetterman wrote on X.

The Times report by left-leaning journalist Charlie Savage argued that Trump’s strike “had no clear legal basis.” But constitutional experts and conservative lawmakers counter that because the men were tied to Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan cartel formally designated a terrorist organization — they were legitimate military targets.

According to U.S. officials, 11 members of the gang were killed when their vessel, packed with narcotics and high-powered outboard engines, was destroyed by U.S. forces in the Caribbean.

A Daily Wire op-ed ridiculed critics for suggesting the smugglers should have been treated as ordinary suspects:

“Until now, the absolute worst-case scenario is that they might get detained, very briefly, and maybe have to answer a question or two about why they’re heading towards the United States on a boat with four outboard motors and millions of dollars’ worth of narcotics. And then some NGO, armed with tax dollars commandeered by the Democrat Party, would jump into action and spring them loose.”

This time, the report noted, NGOs and activist judges never got the chance to intervene — and Americans are safer for it.

Meanwhile, tensions rose further after the Pentagon confirmed two Venezuelan fighter jets conducted a “highly provocative” fly-by near a U.S. Navy destroyer operating in international waters. Trump immediately warned Caracas that if its planes threaten U.S. forces, they will be “shot down.”

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters: “If they fly in a dangerous position, I would say that you can, you or your captains can make the decision as to what they want to do. … If they do put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down.”

The president previously celebrated the maritime strike in a Truth Social post, declaring:

“Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility.”

Trump added that the cartel, operating under Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, has been responsible for drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and mass violence across the Western Hemisphere.

For now, the message is clear: America under Trump is treating fentanyl traffickers not as petty criminals, but as terrorists waging war against the United States.