'Deeply troubling': Military expert warns Trump is unilaterally 'deciding to kill people'
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U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 26, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Rachel VanLandingham, a retired Judge Advocate General's Corps officer, strongly criticized President Donald Trump over his announcement that the U.S. military forces “literally shot out a boat” believed to be carrying narcotics from Venezuela.
During an appearance on CNN Monday, she said the administration was using "lethal force in the American people's name in a very unique manner," calling the action "deeply troubling."
"It sure looks like the president, on his own accord, is deciding to kill people, extrajudicial killings outside of an armed conflict, outside of war. And there's a binary here. The president can use lethal force, can kill people either because they're posing an imminent, deadly threat against Americans or American interests, or we're at war," VanLandingham said.
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She added: "And the president has properly identified them as being a member of an armed group, either a military or some type of terrorist organization for which he has authority to to designate that we're at war against from Congress and is killing them based on their status. And we really don't see evidence of either," she continued.
VanLandingham, a former active duty judge advocate in the US Air Force, asked: "Why not just arrest them? Why not detain them and prosecute them in a U.S. court of law?"
Earlier on Monday evening,Trump confirmed that U.S. military forces “literally shot out a boat” believed to be carrying narcotics from Venezuela.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said the vessel was targeted as it transported “a lot of drugs” and that he had just been briefed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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“You’ll see the evidence,” Trump told the press, adding: “There’s more where that came from.”
The statement echoed and expanded on earlier remarks posted to his Truth Social account, where Trump first announced that U.S. forces had struck a Venezuelan drug boat, killing three people aboard.
He described the individuals as “narco-terrorists” involved in trafficking cocaine and fentanyl, calling the shipment “a deadly weapon poisoning Americans.”
“Just over the last few minutes, they literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, and it came very heavily from Venezuela,” Trump said from the briefing room.
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