Our Republican Legacy Opposes President Trump's Illegal, Undeclared War Against Civilians and Venezuela

The issue. On January 20, 2025, one of President Trump’s first executive orders of his second administration was to declare drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” or FTOs. In February, the U.S. State Department declared a Venezuelan drug cartel, Tren de Aragua (TdA), as an FTO. On September 2nd, President Trump initiated the first attack by U.S. Armed Forces against an alleged “narco-terrorist” civilian boat in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Venezuela without either pre or post Congressional authorization or advanced reporting. Through the end of 2025, U.S. Armed Forces have destroyed at least 36 non-military vessels killing at least 115 civilians. Without providing any proof, the Trump Administration claims these civilians were “narco-terrorists” involved in smuggling drugs illegally into the United States. On December 29th, President Trump announced that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had conducted a covert attack on Venezuelan sovereign territory, destroying a dock allegedly used for loading drugs to be smuggled into the United States, again without providing any proof or gaining prior or post-hoc Congressional authorization.

The smuggling of illegal drugs into the United States is a tragic and destructive crime that demands  prosecution and punishment to the full extent of the law. Drugs have destroyed Americans’ lives and dealers should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But, it must be accomplished in accordance with Federal law, the law of Armed Conflict and the Constitutional requirements of due process. No one disputes that smuggling drugs into the United States is a legitimate public law enforcement policy that needs to be taken seriously to stop the flow and supply of dangerous drugs that create a public health hazard for our nation and too often result in destroyed lives and preventable deaths. Law enforcement for drug smuggling on the high seas into the United States has historically been under the watch of the U.S. Coast Guard, which has a proven record of lawfully interdicting suspected drug smugglers’ boats without resorting to blowing up the boats and killing all on board in violation of the law. The Coast Guard acts as both a military branch and a Federal law enforcement agency pursuant to Federal law, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Law of Armed Conflict and within the bounds of International Law.

The immediate problem facing the United States and our neighboring countries in Central and South America is that President Trump, by his unilateral executive actions as Commander in Chief, is going well beyond his powers under both the U.S. Constitution and applicable law to allegedly stop the supply of illegal drugs from overseas. Compounding the extraordinary chaos, potential crimes and lawlessness created by the President’s alleged drug interdiction scheme even further, he ordered the invasion of Venezuela by US Armed Forces on January 3, 2026, without the approval and oversight of Congress. And he did so, according to his own words, to precipitate “regime change” by arresting and removing Nicolas Maduro, who gained his title of “President” in an illegitimate election,  to the United States for trial. This illegal action sets the stage to control Venezuela’s sizable oil reserves, all of which violates Federal and international law as well as the charters of both the United Nations and the Organization of American States.

Once again, the imperial presidency of Donald Trump has dismissed the constraints and requirements of the Constitution and the provisions of applicable law.

Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution places the power to declare war against another sovereign nation with the U.S. Congress, not the President. The Congress is the branch of government that declares war, authorizes and appropriates funds for the military, and authorizes the use of military force (AUMF).

Article 2 states that the President as chief executive is the commander in chief who is bound by his oath of office to faithfully execute the laws, including directing the Department of Defense to prosecute any military action Congress authorizes. Our Founding Fathers such as Alexander Hamilton and James Madison were clear about the separation of powers in this case. They wrote extensively in the Federalist Papers about this specific separation of powers, where only the legislative branch of our government can declare war while the executive branch is then charged with prosecuting a war that Congress has previously authorized in conformance with the laws and the Constitution. 

To date, President Trump has not sought Congressional approval, and Congress has not conducted any meaningful public oversight of these actions. On its face, this situation is a violation of both the spirit and letter of the War Powers Resolution, which Congress passed after the Vietnam War by overriding President Richard Nixon’s veto. There has been no factual information presented publicly that provides sufficient proof of anything about the status of the civilians killed, nor the contents of the boats, all of which have been destroyed by U. S. Armed Forces under orders from President Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. No usable intelligence has been secured and disclosed to the American people as a result of the 36 unilateral boat strikes and the 115 extrajudicial killings of people on those boats.

The issues to be addressed for the American public with all due diligence and deliberate speed are: 1) the domestic and international legality and morality of killing more than one hundred civilians; 2) the legality of US aggression in the form of a provocative year-end attack on the dock in Venezuelan sovereign territory, the introduction of powerful munitions and the invasion of American troops on January 3 into Venezuela; 3) the legality of the extrajudicial killing of an estimated 40 people to arrest Maduro and his wife; and 4) whether these acts in sum total constitute illegal acts of war by the United States against another sovereign nation in our hemisphere.

To provide some perspective and context, a person who engages in hostilities against the United States during an “armed conflict,” on behalf of an opposing government, is an “enemy combatant." Killing an enemy combatant engaged in an armed conflict can be a lawful act of war, but not if the target is a civilian or an enemy combatant who no longer poses an immediate threat of engaging in hostilities. An unarmed foreign civilian is not an enemy combatant.

An “armed conflict” is defined as a “resort to armed force” between two or more countries. Whether there exists an armed conflict is determined by the facts, not by one country alone, and certainly not by the President or Secretary of Defense falsely and unilaterally declaring that their actions and orders are justified by the existence of an armed conflict when none exists as defined by the law or the facts. There is no evidence that has been revealed of any “armed conflict” between two or more countries such as the United States and Venezuela. In fact, the only known evidence of the use of “armed force” is that initiated in recent months by the United States.

By year-end 2025, none of the U.S. attacks has produced any verifiable evidence sufficient to justify the wholesale extrajudicial killing of foreign nationals who are not enemy combatants under the law. Without question, stopping the overseas flow of illegal drugs into the United States is a matter of great national importance for all Americans, but that public policy objective must be initiated and executed in conformance with Federal law, the Law of Armed Conflict, in this case, the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Constitution — not by a President simply proclaiming the existence of an armed conflict when one does not exist legally or factually.

ORL policy position. Based on ORL’s principle on the Constitution and the Rule of Law, Our Republican Legacy opposes the unilateral actions taken by President Trump and his administration, which exceed the scope of his authority under the Constitution against civilians on the open seas without any public proof or legal evidence that these individuals were “enemy combatants” of another state or nation who “resorted to armed force” and were engaged in “hostilities” against the United States. Labelling the occupants of the alleged drug boats “narco-terrorists” has no application or meaning under applicable law. It changes nothing that the law commands. Even drug smugglers are entitled to due process under the law. There is no justice or due process at the wrong end of a missile strike on an unarmed vessel in the open sea.

We also oppose the covert and unprovoked attack that President Trump revealed on Venezuela’s sovereign territory. We support and insist that Congress intervene immediately in the second session of Congress to reassert its authority under the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution to either authorize Trump’s unilateral military actions against civilians  or halt any further military action by U.S. Armed Forces against civilians or a sovereign nation without full, ongoing Congressional oversight and subsequent authorization.

Actions required. ORL calls for the following three actions to be taken immediately before any more civilians are killed by extrajudicial means or an unnecessary and illegal war by the United States is launched against Venezuela because of the President’s unilateral and unprovoked use of military force beyond his Constitutional authority.

1. The President must cease and desist from all further military actions in our hemisphere against Venezuela or other nations until Congress has conducted full, public oversight hearings and taken subsequent action pursuant to the Constitution and current law. The President must also immediately cease and desist from any further extrajudicial killings of civilians who should be presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law as has been the case with drug smugglers arrested by the Coast Guard in the past. The Coast Guard is the proper law enforcement partner to apprehend and arrest drug smugglers on the open seas.
   

2. The Congress must immediately reassert its powers under Article 1 of the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution to hold public oversight hearings and assess the situation in our hemisphere and on the High Seas to determine what steps are necessary to: a) determine the facts and hold the Trump Administration accountable for its military and other actions to date under the law; and b) what further law enforcement steps are required to stop the supply of illegal drugs into the United States in lieu of further military action by U.S. Armed Forces.
   

3. American citizens must also engage with their elected representatives to make their views known on these critical issues. This includes their views on respect for the Rule of Law with regards to the extrajudicial killing of civilians suspected but not convicted of smuggling illegal drugs into the United States. It also includes their views on the President’s unilateral actions in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean to date that might embroil the United States in an avoidable and illegal war against the wishes of a majority of Americans who did not vote in the last election for U.S. involvement in more entangling wars without prior authorization by the Congress.