Sen. Rand Paul stepped up his attacks on the Trump administration again on Saturday, taking aim at a social media post from Vice President JD Vance regarding President Donald Trump’s decision to strike a boat suspected of smuggling drugs to the U.S. last week.
The Kentucky Republican called Vance’s remarks in response to a post by a noted left-wing social media influencer “despicable and heartless” after the second-in-command said Trump’s attack, which killed 11 suspected Venezuelan smugglers, an appropriate use of the U.S. military.
“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vance wrote on the X platform.
Left-wing activist Brian Krassenstein responded, “Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.”
The Trump administration has designated members of the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua cartel, suspected of operating the vessel that was destroyed, as a foreign terrorist organization.
Vance responded to Krassenstein: “I don’t give a shit what you call it.”
Vance’s response angered Paul, who has been increasingly at odds with the Trump administration over various issues.
“JD ‘I don’t give a shit’ Vance says killing people he accuses of a crime is the ‘highest and best use of the military,’” Paul wrote. “Did he ever read To Kill a Mockingbird? Did he ever wonder what might happen if the accused were immediately executed without trial or representation?? What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
The direct authority to designate someone or some group a terrorist entity lies with the secretary of state — in this case, Marco Rubio — in consultation with the Attorney General and Secretary of the Treasury. But the president can influence the process through various means including via executive order, which Trump has done.
The Democratic argument that only Congress can designate who is and is not a foreign adversary subject to direct U.S. military action is false. Congress retains the power to declare war, but military actions short of war are within the purview of the Executive Branch under the president’s Article II authority in the Constitution, experts note.
Last week following the strike, Paul criticized the action, warning that even suspected criminals deserve due process.
Paul, who chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, raised concerns in an interview Wednesday on Newsmax.
“It’s hard to have any sympathy for drug dealers trying to import product into our country,” Paul said. “But at the same time, I guess, you might ask the question, ‘Where does it end? Are we the world’s policemen?’”
The Kentucky Republican argued that if such a boat had been intercepted off the U.S. coast, the suspects would have been arrested, not killed.
“We all assume these people were bad people and drug dealers, but if they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat,” Paul said.
“If they don’t shoot at us, we don’t shoot at them. They’re confiscated; they’re put in jail.”
Paul cautioned against what he described as unilateral strikes on individuals who have not yet faced trial.
“The entire point of our legal system is to not automatically assume guilt,” he said.
“I think probably that we had the facts correct, we got bad people here,” Paul said. “But … it isn’t our policy just to blow people up.”
The boat destroyed by the U.S. was suspected of carrying hundreds of pounds of deadly fentanyl, which kills upwards of 100,000 Americans annually, much of it using ingredients supplied by China.