By killing suspected drug traffickers at sea, Trump’s lawlessness enters a grim new phase | Editorial

During Donald Trump’s first run for president in 2016, even he couldn’t believe the loyalty of his supporters.

“I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” Trump said during a campaign stop less than two weeks before the Iowa caucus. “It’s, like, incredible.”

Even more incredible, after tens of thousands of lies, four criminal indictments, two impeachments, one conviction, a sexual abuse finding, and untold profiteering, what once seemed outrageous may be one of Trump’s more truthful utterances.

Only, instead of shooting people on Fifth Avenue, the Trump administration is killing them in boats.

America used to be better than this.

Trump has authorized blowing up a series of small boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. Since the first strike on Sept. 2, at least 57 people have been summarily executed for allegedly smuggling drugs.

No evidence has been produced. No charges have been filed. No trials have been held. Trump signed off on the cold-blooded extrajudicial killings, but has failed to make a case for the actions.

Questions abound regarding the constitutionality, legality, morality, and ethics of indiscriminately killing these people — even if it can be proven they are smuggling drugs.

» READ MORE: We’re executing people with impunity. Why are so many of us OK with this? | Luis F. Carrasco

One woman said her husband was a fisherman who left for work and never returned. The first boat blown up had 11 souls on board, which experts said would indicate it was not transporting drugs, because most smugglers have crews of three to allow room for more contraband.

Either way, just being suspected of transporting drugs doesn’t justify instant death. Legal experts said the strikes are illegal under maritime law or human rights conventions, and contradict long-standing U.S. military practices.

The Trump administration has struggled to mount a legal rationale for the killings.

Is the U.S. at war, or is this a drug interdiction?

If it is a war, the president needs congressional authorization. If it is about stopping the flow of drugs, then the U.S. Coast Guard has legal authority to conduct interdictions in international waters.

Those accused of smuggling drugs then get turned over for prosecution by U.S. law enforcement. But even suspected criminals have constitutional rights. At least they did before Trump’s policy of shooting first and not answering questions later.

America used to be better than this.

Trump has blamed alleged “narco-terrorists” from Venezuela for smuggling fentanyl into the United States. But most of the fentanyl in the U.S. is manufactured in China and brought in by American citizens through Mexico.

Trump has also claimed that each small boat that is blown up saved 25,000 American lives. That is patently false.

First, there is no way to tell how many lives would be saved from each boat being blown up. Second, the total number of overdose deaths from all drugs last year was about 82,000. Lastly, studies show that reducing demand in the U.S. is more effective than trying to cut off supply.

Bottom line: Obliterating a few dinghies is not going to end the overdose epidemic.

But Trump’s illegal killing spree may get the U.S. into a costly and senseless war.

Trump has ramped up military activity near Venezuela, sending troops, an aircraft carrier, and B-1 bombers to the area. He has also authorized the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela in an effort to topple President Nicolás Maduro.

So much for being the self-proclaimed “president of peace.”

» READ MORE: How and why Trump’s Caribbean Sea operation is being conducted has endangered trust | Opinion

Beyond the warmongering, Trump’s bullying tactics will do nothing to win friends and influence allies throughout Latin America and beyond. Nor will acting like a dictator and cutting off foreign aid help to spread democracy, bolster human rights, or spur peace and prosperity at home or abroad.

In fact, upending decades of foreign policy by Republican and Democratic presidents alike will do the opposite.

Trump dismissed a question of whether he plans to declare war on Venezuela: “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We’re going to kill them, you know? They’re going to be, like, dead, OK?”

Before Trump, presidents didn’t go around summarily killing people.

But Trump continues to test the bounds of his authority, from the mass deportations of people without due process, to the arresting of perceived political enemies, to the deployment of federal troops into cities, and the rampant pocket lining.

America used to be better than this.

Trump was always unfit to be president. But at each more outrageous turn, he has been enabled.

The conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court — including the three members Trump installed — ruled last year that presidents are above the law. In his first months in office, the high court has continued to shamelessly rule in Trump’s favor.

The Republicans in Congress have ceded power to Trump and avoided any substantive accountability for his lawlessness. Most Senate Republicans — along with Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) — voted down an effort in early October that would have blocked targeting more boats.

Only Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with nearly all Democrats in favor of a resolution that would have required Congress to authorize further strikes.

Paul plans to introduce an updated resolution soon.

“The idea that you’re going to treat humans as just, you know, as refuse, that, ‘Oh, we don’t care if we kill them because they’re not Americans and they can be on the high seas’ is such a callous position,” he said.

Sadly, 70% of Americans seem to support Trump’s decision to blow up the alleged drug boats, one poll found.

If alleged drug smugglers can be killed at sea, then what about on land? Can suspected drug houses in the U.S. be blown up? Can Trump kill anyone?

Where does it end?