Trump threatens strikes on any country he claims makes drugs for US

Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that any country he believes is making drugs destined illegally for the US is vulnerable to a military attack.

The US president’s comments came during a question and answer session at the White House at which he also said military strikes on land targets inside Venezuela, which he has accused of narco-terrorism, will “start very soon”.

The exchange with reporters followed a lengthy cabinet meeting at which Trump and Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, moved to put the responsibility with a navy admiral for the extrajudicial killing of two survivors of an attack on an alleged drugs smuggling boat in September.

Asked if only Venezuela was in the Pentagon’s crosshairs, Trump said he saw any country producing drugs for contraband as fair game, echoing previous saber-rattling directed at Mexico.

“If they come in through a certain country, or any country, or if we think they’re building mills, whether its fentanyl or cocaine ... anybody doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack. Not just Venezuela,” Trump said, adding that he “heard” Colombia was “making cocaine, they have cocaine plants”.

Trump then said military action inside Venezuela was imminent, further inflaming a conflict that began with targeted attacks on vessels his administration identified as engaged in drug trafficking, although without providing proof to the public, and now on the verge of becoming a wider regional conflict.

“We’re going to start doing those strikes on land, too,” he said.

“You know, the land is much easier, much easier. And we know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live, and we’re going to start that very soon too.

“When we start that, we’re going to drive those numbers down so low.”

During the cabinet meeting Hegseth gave a conflicting account of his actions following the 2 September double strike on the alleged drug boat that the armed services committees in both the House and Senate are investigating as possibly illegal.

Hegseth told the cabinet meeting Tuesday he “watched that first strike” but ultimately did not “stick around for the hour or two hours” after, during which two survivors clinging to the boat were fired on a second time and killed.

This contradicted his comments to Fox News the day after the attack in which he said he had watched the operation in real time, making no claim to have only witnessed part of it.

The admiral who ordered the second strike, Frank M “Mitch” Bradley, is scheduled to brief members of the congressional committees on Thursday.