Trump orders US carrier strike group to Caribbean

President Donald Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, a major escalation of warships in the region as the U.S. attacks alleged drug-running boats and increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

Deploying a carrier is a significant move for any White House, and often suggests larger scale military operations.

The arrival of the U.S.S. Gerald Ford, the Navy’s newest and most advanced aircraft carrier, alongside several destroyers and a submarine, will add to what is already the world’s largest naval deployment.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the move on X, saying the deployment “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. ”

The warships will add to the 10,000 troops and a dozen F-35 fighters which have been sent to the region over the last several weeks.

B-52 and B-1B Lancer bombers have flown close to Venezuela’s coast in recent days, as warplanes and drones sunk seven alleged drug-running boats. The actions, which expanded into the Pacific on Thursday with an eighth strike, have killed dozens of people the Pentagon has labeled as “narco-terrorists.”

The administration has said the killings are lawful but has not provided a legal rationale for the military’s use of force against civilians who are not engaged in war.

Trump said Thursday he is unlikely to go to Congress for authorization to conduct the strikes “I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,” he said. ”We’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. … They’re going to be, like, dead.”

Maduro, the authoritarian leader who Trump accuses of enabling drug trafficking, said this week that his forces have deployed thousands of Russian-made Igla-S ground-to-air missiles around the country in preparation for any U.S. airstrikes.

The deployment of the carrier strike group is a huge undertaking for the Navy, and is normally a sign that the administration is looking to show a presence in a region. The Ford’s F/A-18 fighter planes will add significant heft to the strikes taking place. And the group’s destroyers provide more long-range missile strike options for targets on land.

The Ford deployed from its home port in Virginia in June and has spent the last several months in the North Sea and Mediterranean training with NATO allies.