President Donald Trump’s 60-day window for military strikes on alleged Latin American drug boats has closed, according to the legal fine print of the
War Powers Resolution. If the U.S. president cannot obtain congressional approval for military action after 60 days, that law says those actions must be terminated. The Pentagon said their first such strike occurred on September 2; White House officials formally notified Congress of the strikes on September 4, which makes today day 61.
And that’s why the White House reportedly now claims war powers restrictions do not apply to President Trump’s actions against these alleged drug traffickers. The New York Times and Washington Post both reported that new legal wrinkle over the weekend.
As of Sunday, the U.S. military claims to have conducted 15 of these strikes, which have killed 65 people and left three survivors. NBC News reminded readers Monday, “The administration has produced no evidence supporting its allegations about the boats, their passengers, the cargo or the number of people killed, injured or surviving.”
But the White House now claims these strikes do not constitute “hostilities” as described in the War Powers Resolution. An anonymous White House official told the Post the Pentagon’s “operation comprises precise strikes conducted largely by unmanned aerial vehicles launched from naval vessels in international waters at distances too far away for the crews of the targeted vessels to endanger American personnel.” The Times calls this “an important development for the history of a law that presidents of both parties have chafed at over the past half century.”
“A similar situation arose in 2011, when [President] Obama directed the United States to participate in a NATO-led air war over Libya that ended up lasting more than 60 days,” Charlie Savage and Julian Barnes of the Times write. “Congress had not passed a spending bill for the operation, but, for policy reasons, Mr. Obama did not want to halt or scale back American participation before the war was over.” Yet “one [White House] faction came up with a theory that Mr. Obama had the authority to continue the military campaign without changes because American involvement fell short of 'hostilities.' Mr. Obama embraced that argument and kept going, weathering significant criticism.”
If that White House position is accepted and unchallenged by the current Congress, the implications would be “significant,” argues former State Department counsel Brian Finacune. “First, the U.S. government can continue its killing spree at sea, notwithstanding the time limits imposed by the War Powers Resolution,” Finacune wrote Monday at Just Security. Second, “The administration’s theory places a broad swath of common U.S. military action—standoff strikes with little risk to U.S. forces—outside the scope of the War Powers Resolution and its restrictions. And the White House is doing so while it postures not only for further killing at sea, but also for possible military action against Venezuela.” And “Third, this legal theory could further complicate congressional efforts to rein in unauthorized military action by this and future presidents.”
Finacune’s read: The White House’s latest “creative lawyering” in this case “is yet another legal abuse and arrogation of power by the executive. And it is a power grab in the service of killing people outside the law based solely on the President’s own say so,” he warns. His advice? “The legislative branch should reject the executive’s strained legal interpretation of the War Powers Resolution, including possibly in legislation. Congress should also continue efforts to halt these killings at sea and block an unlawful attack on Venezuela.” Read the rest, here.
Developing: The U.S. military is planning operations to send troops into Mexico to fight drug cartels, NBC News reported Monday, citing current and former U.S. officials. “The early stages of training for the potential mission, which would include ground operations inside Mexico, has already begun…But a deployment to Mexico is not imminent” because “a final decision has not been made,” three NBC reporters write.
As we discussed in a recent podcast episode on the topic, the troops would be expected to come from Joint Special Operations Command operating under Title 50 status with assistance from the CIA. According to currently-understood plans, “U.S. troops in Mexico would mainly use drone strikes to hit drug labs and cartel members and leaders,” which would “require operators to be on the ground to use them effectively and safely, the officials said.”
Also: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has forbidden military officials to discuss the boat strikes with lawmakers without prior approval, CNN reported Sunday. But that’s just one of several topics the secretary won’t let officials discuss with Congress without approval. Others include the Golden Dome program, acquisition reform, “critical munitions,” and the National Defense Strategy.
But that’s not all. “Other topics include budget and reconciliation spending plans; critical minerals; Foreign Military Sales reform; AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States; anomalous health incidents also known as ‘Havana Syndrome’; and Spectrum, which refers to the electromagnetic spectrum that underpins military operations and other key US government functions,” CNN’s Natasha Bertrand reports.
Congressional reax: “The new rules have put a large barrier between the military & Congress,” GOP Rep. Don Bacon wrote on social media this weekend. The “Pentagon says the change is very small. But I already see the impact with military members being afraid to communicate. This is another amateur move.”
Reminder: Hegseth in February claimed on social media, “Transparency doesn't happen on its own, and this will be the most transparent administration ever.” Meanwhile, “Hegseth, whose tenure has been beleaguered by leaks, has taken a number of steps to more tigh[t]ly control information since earlier this year, including barring most engagements between DoD personnel and think tanks, reporters, or other outside events and conferences,” Bertrand writes. More, here.
Mapped: Visualize Trump’s possible war on Venezuela thanks to an informative multimedia presentation published Sunday by Reuters. The outlet “spoke to three U.S. military officials and three maritime experts who said the new construction in [the former Roosevelt Roads military base in Ceiba,] Puerto Rico and [the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport at St Croix in] the Virgin Islands pointed to preparations that could enable the U.S. military to carry out operations inside Venezuela.”
Related reading:
Welcome to this Monday edition of The D Brief, a newsletter dedicated to developments affecting the future of U.S. national security, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. It’s more important than ever to stay informed, so thank you for reading. Share your tips and feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1783, the United States disbanded the Continental Army, one day after Gen. George Washington delivered his farewell to the troops.
Around the Defense Department
Hegseth visited the Korean DMZ before negotiations this week on the future of U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, Reuters reported Monday from Seoul. Those troop talks are slated for Tuesday as “Washington is considering making the role of the 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea more flexible,” though it’s not clear yet exactly how that might play out.
Back stateside, a federal judge in Oregon paused Trump’s order to send National Guard troops to Portland until at least Friday. The ruling came down Sunday evening, “which essentially extends her earlier temporary restraining order blocking President Trump from using Guard troops to protect an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in the city that has been the site of daily protests since early June,” the New York Times reports.
Notable: “The judge also said the protests outside the Portland ICE building did not amount to a rebellion,” Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. In her 16-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut “referenced several dictionary definitions and even cited prominent events from American history in the late 1700s, including the Whiskey Rebellion and Shays’ Rebellion, two events that saw bloodshed shortly after the nation’s founding.”
By the way: “Trump's National Guard deployments aren't random. They were planned years ago,” NPR reported Monday morning.
And Black Americans in Memphis say they’re being “racially profiled and harassed” by Trump’s police task force, ProPublica reported Monday. “Among those who have reported being harassed: a ride-share driver stopped for not wearing a seat belt despite having one on as she drove a passenger to the airport; a pastor pulled over for looking lost as she left a church gathering; and, in a case of mistaken identity, a 72-year-old man roused from bed and marched out of his apartment while clad in only his robe and underwear.”
“If you’re not white, we’re just all going to be targeted,” one resident told ProPublica.
Additional reading:
Industry
DOGE is leading the Pentagon’s overhaul of its drone program, Reuters reports, “including streamlining procurement, expand[ing] homegrown production, and acquir[ing] tens of thousands of cheap drones in the coming months, according to Pentagon officials and people with knowledge of the matter.” In June, Trump designated drones as a priority in an executive order; in July, Hegseth issued a memo saying that the Pentagon would approve the purchase of “hundreds” of drone-related products and otherwise boost drone development, manufacturing, and deployment.
DOGE’s involvement had not previously been reported, Reuters writes, citing five people with knowledge of the matter, adding that Pentagon officials “did not immediately respond to a comment request.” Read on, here.
Anduril's drone wingman makes first flight, following software delays. The California milestone followed the August flight of rival General Atomics’ prototype for the Air Force’s collaborative combat aircraft competition. Defense One’s Thomas Novelly has a bit more, here.
Workers stick around longer when you boost wages and give them better-qualified co-workers, nation’s largest shipbuilder finds. In April, HII announced that it would attempt to boost workforce recruiting and retention by raising wages and moving away from hiring green workers. The effort, later funded in part by a portion of the $4 billion granted by Congress to boost U.S. naval shipbuilding in July, is paying off, CEO Chris Kastner said during HII’s third-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Defense One’s Lauren C. Williams reports, here.
Additional reading:
Etc.
Responding to apparent misinformation, Trump threatened to go to war with Nigeria in a social media post on Saturday. “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the U.S. president wrote in the afternoon.
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” he posted, and added, “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
Context: “[R]ecent claims circulating among some U.S. right-wing circles” including West Virginia GOP Rep. Riley Moore “that as many as 100,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 are not supported by available data,” Reuters reports.
What’s really taking place: “Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have wrought havoc in [Nigeria] for more than 15 years, killing thousands of people, but their attacks have been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim. While Christians have been killed, the vast majority of the victims have been Muslims,” the wire service explained Sunday. Indeed, researchers reviewed 1,923 attacks on civilians in Nigeria in 2025, but “the number of those targeting Christians because of their religion stood at 50,” according to the crisis-monitoring group ACLED.
Nigeria’s reax: “There is no Christian genocide,” replied Daniel Bwala, a top adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu. “We don't take [Trump’s threat] literally, because we know Donald Trump thinks well of Nigeria.”
Trump has threatened more than a half-dozen countries with military action since his second term began in January, including Canada, Panama, Denmark and Greenland, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Mexico, and now Nigeria. He has ordered actual strikes on Iran and Yemen.
Related reading: “Trump threat of military action in Nigeria prompts confusion and alarm,” the Washington Post reported Monday.
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