Charlie Kirk Presents The Question Authorities Must Ask Before And If They Target Drug Cartels

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk urged U.S. leaders to apply prudence when considering the use of force against foreign adversaries, warning that authorities must first ask a fundamental question before targeting drug cartels.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the Trump administration will continue launching military strikes against narco-terrorist vessels to wage war on drug cartels threatening Americans. In an appearance on “The Will Cain Show,” Kirk said that before launching an attack authorities must ask the question: Will the enemy pose immediate harm to the United States?

“We must use prudence in all things. And we must ask the question, is an enemy combatant, a person, an organization, going to make or going to invoke immediate harm against the United States of America?” Kirk asked host Will Cain.

Kirk defended the U.S. military strike on a Tren de Aragua vessel, saying it sent a warning to cartel operatives who traffic deadly drugs into the country.

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“In the case of these Tren de Aragua members that were trafficking lethal drugs to the United States, absolutely, those 11 people were putting drugs into America that killed thousands, tens of thousands of people,” Kirk said. “And this connects to my previous point. This is also psychological deterrence because now, tonight, if someone wants to go get in one of their boats to go bring more drugs in the United States, they might look up in the sky and say, ‘Hey, what’s that blinking light? Is that a drone? Is that someone that might strike us?’”

Kirk pushed back against fears of another open-ended foreign entanglement but said it is past time to direct U.S. military power toward threats in the Western Hemisphere. (RELATED: ‘Going To Wage War’: Marco Rubio Warns Strikes On Drug Cartels Will ‘Happen Again’)

“Now, Will, we do not want to see another endless quagmire. However, I will say, though, that it’s about time we start to use force in our own hemisphere. In my lifetime, we’ve always used force and tanks and drones and missiles and airstrikes in lands far distant on the other side of the world. It’s about time that we start to use that sort of military might against the very thing that is killing the most amount of our own people,” Kirk said.

Kirk praised Rubio for pressing the issue.

“Right now, people are dying of opioids. They’re dying of fentanyl at way too high rates. These drug cartels have been able to operate with impunity. We’ve kind of turned a blind eye because you don’t want the diplomatic type of baggage that comes with it,” Kirk added. “Marco Rubio, he’s exhibiting a master class here. And I think it’s about time, and praise God for the president’s courage here to use military force in this one isolated incident to kind of show the rest of the drug cartels, ‘Hey, if you get in that boat to bring drugs to America, you could be next.’”

Trump designated multiple Latin American cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in early August and authorized military strikes to disrupt their operations. U.S. Southern Command carried out the latest strike in international waters using Aegis-class missile ships positioned to intercept cartel trade routes, killing all 11 operatives aboard the targeted vessel, Trump said.

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro responded with veiled threats, vowing to “defend our seas, our skies and our lands,” and dismissed the U.S. deployment as “an outlandish, bizarre threat of a declining empire.”

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