Vice President JD Vance on Saturday defended the use of U.S. military force to “kill cartel members” bringing drugs into the country, rejecting criticism that a recent airstrike on a suspected trafficking boat amounted to a war crime.
“Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military,” Vance posted to X on Saturday morning.
The vice president then engaged in a back-and-forth with left-wing social media influencer Brian Krassenstein, who said, “Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians without any due process is called a war crime.”
“I don’t give a shit what you call it,” Vance replied.
The exchange came just days after the Trump administration ordered an airstrike on a suspected drug vessel departing Venezuela. President Donald Trump said the strike targeted the Tren de Aragua gang and killed 11 alleged traffickers, POLITICO reported.
“Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the recent strike in the southern Caribbean would not be a one-time operation.
“We’ve got assets in the air, assets in the water, assets on ships, because this is a deadly serious mission for us, and it won’t stop with just this strike,” Hegseth said on Fox News on Wednesday. “Anyone else trafficking in those waters who we know is a designated narco terrorist will face the same fate.”
During last year’s campaign, Vance suggested using the U.S. military against the cartels, whose power and influence has only grown over the past decade as they flood the U.S. with deadly fentanly, much of it manufactured using Chinese-supplied ingredients.
The drug kills more than 100,000 Americans annually.
“I think we’ve got hundreds of thousands of very fine Marines, soldiers, sailors and airmen, who are pretty pissed off at the Mexican cartels,” Vance said at one rally. “I think we’ll send them in to do battle with the Mexican drug cartels, too.”
The strike was “conducted against the operations of a designated terrorist organization and was taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests,” said White House deputy press secretary Anna Kelly, adding it was “fully consistent” with the law of armed conflict.
Vance’s remarks came a day after Trump signed an executive order rebranding the Pentagon as the “Department of War,” a change limited to informal use since a formal renaming would require congressional approval.
Trump warned Friday that Venezuelan planes could be shot down if they put U.S. forces in what he called a “dangerous position.”
The warning came after the Pentagon said two Venezuelan fighter planes flew near a U.S. Navy destroyer operating in international waters this week. The incident occurred as the United States expands its military presence in the southern Caribbean.
The latest escalation follows a U.S. strike on a vessel tied to the Venezuelan-linked Tren de Aragua gang. The administration said 11 people were killed in that operation.
The Pentagon described the flight of the two planes as “highly provocative” and cautioned Caracas not to interfere with U.S. counter-narcotics and counterterrorism operations.
Trump spoke to reporters in the Oval Office about the possibility of further encounters.
“Well, I would say they’re gonna be in trouble,” Trump said.
“We heard that happened, but it wasn’t really over, not like they described. But I would say general, if they do that, you have a choice of doing anything you want. OK? If they fly in a dangerous position, I would say that you can, you or your captains can make the decision as to what they want to do,” he added.
“If they do put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down,” he added.
