Sebastian Gorka defended the Trump administration’s decision to sink a boat carrying suspected Venezuelan drug traffickers, telling Newsmax on Thursday that the U.S. has the right and duty to treat cartels as terrorist organizations.
U.S. forces on Tuesday sank a suspected drug-smuggling vessel in international waters off the coast of Venezuela, marking one of the most aggressive actions yet in President Donald Trump’s stepped-up war on drugs. Defense officials said the boat was intercepted after intelligence indicated it was carrying drugs bound for the U.S.
Gorka, deputy assistant to Trump and senior director for counterterrorism, told “Rob Schmitt Tonight” the move was necessary given the devastation caused by dangerous drugs entering the U.S. under the Biden administration.
“That ship was blown up because more Americans were killed in one year under Biden thanks to the cartels than in 70 years of combat,” he said, pointing to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showing more than 110,000 drug-induced deaths over a 12-month period ending in September 2023, most linked to fentanyl.
“When you add up every U.S. serviceman killed in action since the end of World War II — Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq — that total is 103,000,” Gorka said. “In one year, the cartels killed more Americans than all those wars combined. That’s why we have every right, in fact a duty, to declare war on these cartels.”
The action drew sharp criticism from human rights activists and Democrats in Congress. Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, wrote Tuesday on X: “Drug traffickers are not combatants who can be shot on sight. They are criminal suspects who must be arrested and prosecuted.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., called the military attack “an extrajudicial killing, pure and simple,” arguing the U.S. had only its own word for who was aboard the boat.
“Even if they were right, we’re not in a war with Venezuela,” said Van Hollen, who has advocated to keep illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from being deported.
The Trump administration asserts that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Gorka dismissed such objections as ignoring the human toll of cartel violence.
“If you’re on the side of the cartels, you’re not on the side of America,” he said. “If you are a cartel member bringing powdered death into America, you have declared war on us, and we will turn you into red mist. It is that simple.”
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