U.S. Deploys Largest Aircraft Carrier To South America As Trump Hints At Land Strikes Against Cartels

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth dispatched the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group toward South America on Friday, as the United States continues to take out suspected drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and President Donald Trump hints at striking targets on land.

The aircraft carrier strike group will assist in disrupting “narcotics trafficking” and countering “narco-terrorism” in the U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area of responsibility, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a post on X. The SOUTHCOM region encompasses all of Central and South America, along with the Caribbean.

“The enhanced U.S. force presence … will bolster U.S. capacity to detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” he wrote. “These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle TCOs [Transnational Criminal Organizations].

The USS Gerald Ford, America’s largest and most advanced aircraft carrier, is the flagship for Carrier Strike Group 12. The Strike Group also includes a Carrier Air Wing, a Cruiser, and Destroyers. The carrier group is set to join eight other American ships in the region, CBS News reported. The growing U.S. military presence near South America is part of Trump’s effort to take out drug cartels and prevent deadly drugs from reaching American shores.

Trump has ordered 10 strikes against suspected drug runners in the Caribbean Sea, killing at least 43 people, while two other suspected cartel members have been captured. The president said on Wednesday that he would continue taking out suspected drug boats, adding that land strikes are “going to be next.”

Trump said that the United States is “totally prepared” to hit targets seeking to traffic drugs into the United States by land.

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“They’ll be coming in by land a little bit more because they’re not coming in by boat anymore. There are no boats in the water. There are no more boats,” Trump said, adding, “And we will hit them very hard when they come in by land.”

The president’s boat strikes have focused on suspected cartel members coming out of Venezuela, enraging Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, who claims that the United States is seeking to force him out of power. Maduro has called the strikes “a military attack on civilians who were not at war and were not militarily threatening any country.”

Some lawmakers in Washington, D.C., have expressed concern about Trump’s strikes on suspected drug runners, arguing that Congress must grant approval before the administration uses the military to target suspected narco-terrorists in international waters. Most Democrats and some Republicans have called for more oversight of the Trump administration’s military actions in the Caribbean.

Republican Senators Mike Rounds (SD), Thom Tillis (NC), Todd Young (IN), and Susan Collins (ME), have all made public calls for more Congressional oversight on the strikes.

“This is a legitimate discussion between the two branches of government that we should always be having,” said Tillis. “I think we’ve got to be very careful when you’re talking about ordering a kinetic strike.”

Senators Rand Paul (KY) and Lisa Murkowski (AK) have taken their opposition to Trump’s strikes a step further, joining with most Democrats earlier this month in an effort to pass a measure stopping the military action. Paul introduced the measure alongside Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), but it ultimately failed. Rounds, Young, Tillis, and Collins all voted against the measure, as did Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

Trump said on Thursday that he doesn’t need to ask for a declaration of war to carry out the strikes.

“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 are going to be, like, dead,” he said.

He added that he might “go to Congress” to inform them about the land strikes, saying, “I can’t imagine they would have any problem.”

The Trump administration has told the American people that the strikes are conducted based on credible intelligence that marks the targets as cartel members.