Rand Paul Excoriates Trump Admin’s Lethal Strikes On Alleged Drug Boats: ‘We Are Not At War’

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is doubling down on his position that the recent U.S. military strikes on alleged drug vessels in the Caribbean Sea are illegal, a position that has earned him the ire of President Donald Trump — who called Paul a “nasty liddle’ guy” last week.

“We have dangerous people in a lot of American cities, but we just don’t just go in and shoot them,” Paul said Tuesday on “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” “I mean, we have trials. They get legal representation. And even on the high seas, it’s been that way for generations.”

Paul first spoke out last month after the Trump administration blew up a suspected drug boat off the Venezuelan coast. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Wednesday that the U.S. has now conducted its eighth strike against an alleged drug boat.

This newfound military campaign has killed at least 34 people since September, Hegseth said.

“If you go off the coast of Miami, the Coast Guard will be stopping boats today,” Paul told Morgan. “And about 25% of the boats that they stop that they’re suspicious of drugs, there won’t be any drugs on board. So 25% of the time, the suspicion is wrong.”

“And that’s why we don’t shoot and just blow up boats off of Miami,” he continued. “But neither should we be blowing them up off the coast of Venezuela. No. 1, there is no fentanyl made in Venezuela — not just a little bit, there’s none being made in Venezuela.”

The criticism of this bombing campaign has been ill-received by Trump.

He wrote Friday on his Truth Social platform, “Whatever happened to ‘Senator’ Rand Paul? He was never great, but he went really BAD! I got him elected, TWICE (in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky!), but he just never votes positively for the Republican Party.”

The president added at the time, “He’s a nasty liddle’ guy.”

Paul notably broke with Trump over the GOP’s “big, beautiful” bill earlier this year, showing no interest in helping him fulfill campaign promises by voting for the massive tax and spending bill. Paul called it “just not conservative” on Fox News at the time.

“I’ve known President Trump for over a decade, I’ve played golf with him a couple dozen times,” he told Morgan on Tuesday. “I actually enjoy his company and his personality most of the time, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to be a rubber stamp or agree with everything.”

The senator added that he doesn’t take Trump’s insults “too seriously.”

Paul continues to appear most disturbed by the increasing use of deadly military force in Caribbean waters. He pleaded for a return to due process after the first attack last month and reiterated as much on social media following his appearance on Morgan’s show.

“We can’t just kill indiscriminately because we are not at war,” Paul wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s summary execution! Everyone gets a trial because sometimes, the system gets it wrong. Even the worst of the worst in our country get due process.”

He continued, “The bottom line is that execution without process is not justice, and blowing up foreign ships is a recipe for chaos.”