Republican Senator Rand Paul has once again found himself at odds with President Donald Trump, this time over a series of controversial U.S. military strikes targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats off the coast of Venezuela. The strikes, which have killed 34 people in eight separate incidents between August and late October 2025, have ignited a firestorm of debate in Washington over the legality, morality, and strategic wisdom of the administration’s approach to combating drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Pacific.
Speaking with British journalist Piers Morgan, Senator Paul minced no words in his criticism of the Trump administration’s actions and rationale. "There is no fentanyl made in Venezuela. Not just a little bit, there's none being made," Paul said, according to Latin Times. He went on to highlight the logistical improbability that the small outboard boats targeted by the strikes could even reach Miami without stopping to refuel up to 20 times, casting doubt on official claims that the boats posed a direct threat to the United States.
Paul’s concerns go beyond questions of geography and chemistry. He expressed deep unease about the broader principles at stake. "There are a lot of reasons to be worried about this. Number one is the broader principle of when can you kill people indiscriminately when there's war. That's why when we declare war is supposed to be done by Congress. It's not supposed to be done willy nilly. When there's war you just kill people in the war zone, there are rules of engagement," Paul told Morgan. He insisted that drug interdiction has always been an anti-crime activity, not a battlefield operation, emphasizing, "We don't just summarily execute people, we actually present evidence and convict them."
Paul is not alone in his concerns. The strikes, which began in early September with the destruction of a vessel allegedly operated by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, have been carried out without a declaration of war or any formal legal investigation. According to NPR, President Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation in the fight against drug cartels, declaring them "foreign terrorist organizations" and framing the U.S. response as an "armed conflict." This legal maneuvering draws on the same authority used by the Bush administration after the September 11 attacks, but it has proven controversial, especially as the Trump administration has expanded the list of targeted groups to include profit-driven crime rings rather than ideologically motivated terror organizations.
The scale of the U.S. military buildup in the region has been striking. By late August, the U.S. had deployed three Aegis guided-missile destroyers, three amphibious assault ships, two additional Navy vessels, and approximately 6,000 sailors and Marines to waters off Venezuela. F-35 fighter jets were stationed in Puerto Rico, and a Navy submarine capable of launching cruise missiles was also reportedly operating in the area, according to NPR. The buildup, coupled with the strikes, has stoked fears in Venezuela of a possible U.S. invasion and fueled speculation that Trump could be seeking to topple President Nicolás Maduro, who faces narcoterrorism charges in the United States.
Each strike has been accompanied by official claims that the targeted vessels were carrying large quantities of drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl. However, evidence presented to the public has been thin. For example, Trump posted a video of the first strike showing a small vessel exploding but no clear stashes of drugs. When pressed by reporters about proof, Trump replied, "We have proof. All you have to do is look at the cargo that was spattered all over the ocean — big bags of cocaine and fentanyl all over the place." But critics, including Democratic Senator Jack Reed and human rights groups, have described the strikes as an overreach of executive authority and a violation of due process.
In Venezuela, the U.S. actions have been denounced as murder. Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello questioned the methods used to identify the people on board the targeted vessel, asking, "And how did they identify them as members of the Tren de Aragua? Did they have, I don't know, a chip? Did they have a QR code and (the U.S. military) read it from above in the dark? They openly confessed to murdering 11 people."
The Trump administration has only doubled down. On October 2, President Trump issued a memo declaring drug cartels to be unlawful combatants, effectively asserting that trafficking drugs into the United States constitutes an armed conflict requiring military force. The move was sharply criticized by Senator Paul, who argued that only Congress has the authority to declare war and called the memo "a way to pretend like" the administration was notifying lawmakers with a justification for the strikes.
Efforts to rein in the president’s war powers have so far been unsuccessful. Paul has joined Democratic Senator Tim Kaine in supporting a bill that would require congressional authorization for further military strikes on cartels, but the legislation was voted down by Senate Republicans on October 8, with only Paul, Senator Lisa Murkowski, and Democratic Senator John Fetterman breaking party lines.
The Trump administration has continued to escalate its campaign. On October 15, Trump confirmed he had authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela and was considering land operations. The following week, the U.S. military expanded its targeting area with strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean, shifting focus toward Colombia—the world’s largest producer of cocaine.
Amid these developments, Admiral Alvin Holsey, who oversaw U.S. Southern Command, announced his retirement after less than a year in the post, raising further questions about the stability and direction of U.S. military policy in the region. Representative Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called for a hearing on the strikes, citing "a staggering lack of transparency on behalf of an Administration and the Department to meaningfully inform Congress on the use of lethal military force."
International criticism has mounted as well. On October 21, a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council condemned the U.S. actions as violations of international law and a dangerous escalation. "These actions also violate the fundamental international obligations not to intervene in the domestic affairs or threaten to use armed force against another country," the experts said, warning of "grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region."
President Trump has responded to criticism with characteristic bluster, lashing out at Senator Paul on social media and questioning his loyalty to the Republican Party. In one post, Trump wrote, "He was never great, but he went really BAD! I got him elected, TWOCE (in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky!), but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party. He's a nasty liddle' guy, much like 'Congressman' Thomas Massie, aka Rand Paul Jr., also of Kentucky (which I won three times, in massive landslides!), a sick Wacko, who refuses to vote for our great Republican Party, MAGA, or America First. It's really weird!!!"
As the strikes continue and the debate intensifies, the clash between executive power and congressional oversight, as well as the question of America’s role in the region, remains unresolved. The coming weeks promise further controversy as lawmakers, international bodies, and the public grapple with the consequences of a campaign that has already left a deep mark on U.S. foreign policy and the fragile stability of the Caribbean.
