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Oct. 2, 2025, 7:39 PM EDTBy Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube and Yamiche AlcindorThe Trump administration informed Congress in a confidential notice this week that President Donald Trump has “determined” that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and that members of the organizations can be targeted as unlawful combatants.“The President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” the notice said.”In response, based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of United States and friendly foreign nations, the President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” it added.The designation essentially puts drug cartels in the same legal category as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State.In recent weeks, the U.S. military struck at least three boats from Venezuela allegedly carrying narco-traffickers and drugs that could threaten Americans, Trump said on Truth Social.The notice to Congress listed examples of actions Trump could take in targeting cartels and cited an attack on Sept. 15 that killed “approximately 3 unlawful combatants.”The White House has defended the strikes.“As we have said many times, the President acted in line with the law of armed conflict to protect our country from those trying to bring deadly poison to our shores, and he is delivering on his promise to take on the cartels and eliminate these national security threats from murdering more Americans,” White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement Thursday.NBC News reported last month that the administration is considering strikes on drug cartels inside Venezuela.Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has denied any role in drug trafficking and has repeatedly alleged that the United States is trying to force him from power.Many critics of the strikes, including congressional Democrats and some Republicans, maintain the administration still does not have the legal authority to target the drug cartels using the U.S. military and that it remains a law enforcement matter relying on interdiction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also acting national security adviser, has declared interdiction efforts ineffective.Gordon LuboldGordon Lubold is a national security reporter for NBC News.Courtney KubeCourtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.Yamiche AlcindorYamiche Alcindor is a White House correspondent for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 3, 2025

The U.S. military has recently struck at least three boats from Venezuela allegedly carrying narco-traffickers and drugs that could threaten Americans, Trump said on Truth Social.

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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 2, 2025, 6:01 PM EDTBy Scott WongWASHINGTON — On the second day of the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called it “stupid” and said a negotiation with his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer, is not “going to accomplish a lot.”In an interview with NBC’s Tom Llamas that will air Thursday night, Thune said Democrats will have another opportunity on Friday afternoon to join Republicans in voting for a clean, short-term bill to reopen the government.“I would suspect that we’ll probably cross paths on the floor; we’re both on the floor quite often. Our offices are not far apart. So if he wants to chat, he knows where to find me,” Thune said of Schumer, the New York Democrat who serves as minority leader. “But I think at this point, right now, the issue said, is pretty straightforward. I don’t know that, you know, negotiation is going to accomplish a lot.”For more on this story, tune into “Top Story with Tom Llamas” at 7 p.m. ET on NBC News Now.“This is a seven-week funding resolution just to keep the government funded so we can continue doing the appropriations work that we started earlier this year,” he added.Negotiations between Republican and Democratic leaders have been at a standstill ever since they left a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday without a deal. Trump followed up that meeting by posting an insulting AI video of Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and personal jabs have flown back and forth since.The government shut down on Wednesday for the first time in six years, with no signs of reopening.Schumer and the Democrats are demanding that any funding bill include an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. But Thune has insisted he won’t negotiate on those tax credits until Democrats help Republicans reopen the government. “I’m all about getting it back open again. I think shutdowns are— nobody wins, and I think honestly, for the most part, they’re stupid,” Thune said in the interview. “We really shouldn’t be shutting the government down, and it shouldn’t be taken hostage to do other policy things that are totally unrelated to funding the government.”In a statement Thursday, Schumer suggested the American people were turning against Republicans, who currently control all levers of power in Washington. “Americans see it clearly: They know Trump governs by chaos and welcomes this shutdown — and that Republicans are following his orders to maximize pain. That cruelty is already backfiring,” Schumer said. “Americans blame Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, and the longer they drag it out, the deeper the pain and that blame will grow.”Pressed by Llamas, Thune defended Trump and his top aides who have said they are planning to move forward this week with permanent federal layoffs due to the shutdown, as well as revoking billions in federal funding for projects in blue states like New York, the home state of both Schumer and Jeffries. Thune said none of these things would happen if the Democrats helped reopen the government.”Tom, let’s come back to the basic premise: This is avoidable,” Thune said, adding that the Democrats “are playing with fire by doing this.”He added that Trump’s budget director, Russell Vought, and other administration officials would make spending decisions during this shutdown based on where “their political priorities lie.””It’s very simple, you avoid this by just voting to keep the government open,” he said.The Senate did not hold votes on Thursday in honor of the Yom Kippur holiday, but has scheduled votes at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday on dueling Republican and Democratic plans to reopen the government. Yet those same funding bills have already failed three times before.If the proposals are defeated for a fourth time, Thune said earlier Thursday, the Senate will likely not hold any votes over the weekend. That means a shutdown would last at least until Monday, when the House is also planning to be back in town following a two-week recess.“They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to keep, to open up the government,” Thune told reporters in the Capitol. “And if that fails, then we have the weekend to think about it. We’ll come back. We’ll vote again on Monday.”Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Frank Thorp V, Brennan Leach and Lizzie Jensen contributed.

- Latest News - October 2, 2025

Republican Senate Leader John Thune said the government shutdown is “stupid” and a negotiation with Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer won’t “accomplish a lot.”

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