STORY: U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday (October 22) said his administration had the legal authority to carry out strikes on vessels near Venezuela that it says are transporting drugs, but the administration may go back to Congress if it decides to start hitting targets on land.

"We're allowed to do that, and if we do (it) by land, we may go back to Congress," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. He said his government was "totally prepared" to start targeting alleged drug traffickers on land.

"We will hit them very hard if they come in by land," he said. "We'll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we're doing when we come to the land. We don't have to do that, but I think ... I'd like to do that."

Trump also told reporters he may take "very serious action" against Colombia due to its role in the international narcotics trade.

Trump also called Colombian President Gustavo Petro "a bad guy."

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VIDEO SHOWS: SOUNDBITES FROM U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP/

RESENDING WITH COMPLETE STORY.

SHOWS: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 22, 2025) (UNRESTRICTED POOL - Access all)

1. U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL MARK RUTTE AND TRUMP CABINET MEMBERS SEATED DURING MEETING IN OVAL OFFICE

2. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "On the drug boat strike in the Eastern Pacific. Could you explain to us what that was about, how it was conducted?"

TRUMP: "Yeah, sure. Well, they had one today in the Pacific. And the way I look at it, every time, I look is it is violent and it is very it's amazing that the weaponry that every everyone, you know, they have these boats that go 45, 50 miles an hour in the water. And when you look at the accuracy in the power. Look, we have the greatest military in the world. We have the greatest weapons in the world. And you see a little bit of it there. One shot, everyone dead center. And the only way you can't feel bad about it is you realize that, you won't feel badly about it, is you realize that every time you see that happen, you're saving 25,000 American lives. Every one of those boats that gets knocked out is saving 25,000 American lives, not to mention the torn up families all over the country. And whenever I see that I say to myself, I just saved 25,000 lives. I will say that there are very few boats traveling on the water right now. Actually, that includes fishing boats, that includes any other kind of boat. But there are very few boats traveling on the water. So now they'll come in by land to a lesser extent, and they will be hit on land also."

3. JOURNALISTS IN OVAL OFFICE

4. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "Do you have the legal authority if they do come?"

TRUMP: "Yes, we do. We have legal authority, we're allowed to do that. And if we do by land, we may go back to Congress. But we have, this is a national security problem. They killed 300,000 people last year. Drugs, these drugs coming in. They killed 300,000 Americans last year. And that gives you legal authority. We have a national security problem. Really, I will say this. When you look at the people we're dealing with and we know them, we know the people coming in. We know the boats, we know everything else. We're allowed to do it. It's in international waters. If we don't do it, we're going to lose hundreds of thousands of people. Now, 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. We know the boat almost immediately. You know, it's pretty unusual when you see somebody with a fishing rod and five engines on the back of a boat. You know, you don't need that to go fishing. Wait, wait, wait. And we will hit them very hard when they come in by land. And they haven't experienced that yet. But now we're totally prepared to do that. We'll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we're doing when we come to the land. We don't have to do that. But I think, Marco (Rubio), I'd like to do that. You may respond to that if you want."

5. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE, MARCO RUBIO, SAYING:

"In this particular case, there are people traveling on international waters headed towards the United States with hostilities in mind, which includes flooding our country with dangerous, deadly drugs. And they're going to be stopped. And that's what's happening. And in the case last week, you saw there was a submarine. It was a submarine. It was a submersible. That's a drug boat all the way through. We know what these boats are. The president just said it. We tracked them from the very beginning. We know who's on them, who they are, where they're coming from, what they have on them. And, you know, if you're running drug, boats you're in grave danger."

6. JOURNALISTS LOOKING ON

7. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

"And drug usage is way down and drug usage coming from the sea, they call it ocean drugs, a little term that they use, the ocean drugs is very close to nonexistent right now. I wouldn't want to be in one of those boats heading away. You know, they're driving happily to destroy the lives of people and they end up, that's the end of them. So the ocean drugs and the sea drugs, drugs by sea, they call it also, that's almost down to nothing, as you can imagine. So they continue to come in by land and a little bit less because they see something is going to happen. They don't like it. They see and they're right. Something very serious is going to happen, the equivalent of what's happening by sea and we're going to Congress just to tell them what we're doing, just to keep them informed. But we have to do it for national security. We have to do it to save lives."

8. TRUMP AND OFFICIALS SEATED

9. (SOUNDBITE)(English) U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP, SAYING:

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "The president of Colombia in a recent interview said that if you won't change, he thinks that people should get rid of..."

TRUMP: "We're talking about now Colombia, the country, not the university? He said what?"

REPORTER ASKING OFF CAMERA: "He said that if you won't change, then perhaps you need to be gotten rid of"

TRUMP: "Well, he's a thug and bad guy. He's a guy that is making a lot of drugs. We've just, as of today, stopped all payments going to Colombia, the country, Colombia, also the school, Columbia. No, we settled. We made a settlement with them. But no, he's a thug and he's a bad guy and he's hurt his country very badly. They're doing very poorly, Colombia, they make cocaine. They have cocaine factories. They grow all sorts of crap. That's drugs, bad drugs coming into the United States, goes generally through Mexico, and he better watch it or will take very serious action against him and his country. His country is, what he has led his country into is a death trap."

10. JOURNALISTS DURING MEETING