Thankfully, the Democrats failed to force a vote on their legislation in the Senate last week that would have countered President Donald Trump‘s efforts to fight drug cartels, jeopardizing countless American lives.
The Democrats sought to check the Trump administration’s use of the War Powers Act, also known as the War Powers Resolution of 1973, a law created during an era of perpetual conflict to limit executive authority and require advance notice to Congress before launching any military action against foreign terrorist groups.
TRUMP DELIVERS UNPRECEDENTED PEACE AND STABILITY
As previously mentioned by the nation’s leading legal policy experts at the Heritage Foundation, the resolution is both counterproductive and unconstitutional.
“The War Powers Resolution long ago proved itself useless for its intended purpose and extremely harmful to national defense in its actual effect; It should be repealed before it causes any more damage to United States security or to the constitutional framework so carefully crafted by the Founders two centuries ago,” the foundation wrote.
The Heritage Foundation has argued that the War Powers Act jeopardizes U.S. security by unconstitutionally granting Congress authority to second-guess the president’s actions in defending the nation.
This case was no exception. Allowing Democrats to intervene in Trump’s national security decisions would have only undermined them. The lawmakers driving this effort weren’t seeking oversight; they were seeking another chance to obstruct a decisive presidential action.
“Democrats are so blinded by Trump Derangement Syndrome they’d rather protect cartel killers than the American families torn apart by the fentanyl they traffic into our communities,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told the Washington Examiner.
Her point was valid. The sponsors of the legislation said their goal was to ensure Congress was informed about U.S. strikes against foreign enemies, not to restrict the president’s ability to carry them out. Yet, the same Democrats who introduced the measure had already opposed Trump’s drone strike against the drug cartels to begin with.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said he didn’t know “whether the administration knows their [narcotraffickers on narcotrafficking boats] identities,” and suggested the administration killed “people who were not engaged in trafficking.”
Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), a member of the Armed Services Committee, said that “there is no evidence” to determine if the boat that was originally struck by the U.S. military off the coast of Venezuela was a drug trafficking boat.
To begin with, it’s highly improbable that a civilian vessel would be speeding through a known drug-smuggling corridor carrying unidentified cargo. More importantly, Democrats must recognize that Trump is not waging a war against foreign drug cartels. The operations in question are limited armed conflicts — no different than previous drone strikes he has ordered against terrorist groups in nations where the United States is not at war, such as Somalia.
Yet Democrats choose to ignore this reality. Their opposition appears less about constitutional limits and more about undermining any effort by the president to prioritize American security. Since the start of Trump’s second administration, Democrats have reflexively resisted nearly every action Trump has taken and, in doing so, positioned themselves as defenders of the cartels he seeks to dismantle.
This pattern is not new. For decades, Democratic administrations have adopted policies that indirectly benefited foreign drug traffickers. Under former President Joe Biden, for instance, Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s narco-regime secured a deal to sell oil to the U.S. — an arrangement that only strengthened the financial lifeline sustaining his drug operations.
THE WAR ON DRUGS WILL CONTINUE DESPITE DEMOCRATS’ COMPLAINTS
During the Obama administration, billions in U.S. taxpayer dollars were sent to Central American governments to combat poverty and crime. Yet neither problem improved; most of the funds were siphoned off by corrupt officials and drug traffickers.
Now, under Trump, Democrats are once again advancing policies that would aid the cartels’ interests, this time through misguided and ultimately failed legislation.