Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Sunday mounted a vigorous defense of President Donald Trump’s expanding military operations against narco-trafficking vessels off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia, dismissing bipartisan concerns over legal authority and transparency.
Appearing on CBS’s Face the Nation, Graham asserted that the president’s actions — nine strikes conducted in the Caribbean and Pacific over the last two months against boats the administration says are linked to the Venezuela-based gang Tren de Aragua — are not only justified but necessary.
“You’re making America safer by going after a narco-terrorist,” he said of U.S. service members carrying out the missions. “You’re following lawful orders.”
Pressed by host Margaret Brennan about whether the deployment of the Navy’s most advanced aircraft carrier, the U.S.S. Gerald R. Ford, signaled preparations for land attacks, Graham acknowledged the administration is considering expanded operations.
“Yeah, I think that’s a real possibility,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump plans to brief Congress after returning from Asia about “future potential military operations against Venezuela and Colombia.”
The senator placed blame for escalating tensions squarely on Venezuelan ruler Nicolás Maduro, whom he identified as “an indicted drug trafficker.”
“It’s time for him to go,” Graham said. He argued that both Venezuela and Colombia have “been safe havens for narco-terrorists for too long” and that the United States cannot allow drug networks to continue “poisoning America.”
The operation has drawn criticism from some Republicans — including Senators Rand Paul and James Lankford — who argue Congress must be given more information and that the strikes lack legal grounding. Brennan cited those objections directly, noting questions about what she called “the end game.”
Graham responded bluntly: “The end game is to make sure that Venezuela and Colombia cannot be used to poison America.” He added: “The narco-terrorist dictator Maduro [will] no longer be able to threaten our country.”
He pushed aside comparisons to recent Democratic allegations that the military action amounts to murder. “This is not murder,” Graham insisted. “This is protecting America from being poisoned by narco-terrorists coming from Venezuela and Colombia.”
Historical precedent, Graham argued, favors decisive executive action. “When President [George] Bush, 41, took Ortega out in Panama, [Ronald] Reagan went into Grenada… He has all the authority in the world,” he said of Mr. Trump.
Brennan raised concerns about legal counsel at the Pentagon following Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s removal of top uniformed lawyers in multiple branches. Graham brushed those aside as well, calling the theory that Mr. Trump is acting illegally “absolute garbage.”
More Americans, he noted, have died from cocaine and fentanyl than from any terrorist group. “We now have a president who’s going to use the full force… to protect us from narco-terrorist states,” he said. “Keep it up, Mr. President.”
If lawmakers fear future legal exposure, Graham offered a challenge: “We can cut off funding for military operations we don’t like… Go ahead and do it. I’ll vote no.”
For now, he said, Mr. Trump has both the authority and the obligation to act: “I think it has all the legal authority in the world. I’m just really glad he’s doing this.”
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