U.S. Aircraft Carrier To Be Sent to Caribbean

“WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon plans to send the Navy's most advanced aircraft carrier to the Caribbean, marking a major escalation of the Trump administration's military campaign to target drug smugglers and threaten governments in Latin America.

 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group, now deployed in the Mediterranean, to the Caribbean, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Friday, bringing dozens more fighter and surveillance aircraft, along with other Navy warships that accompany a carrier.

 

The dispatch of a carrier is the strongest sign yet that President Trump is serious about striking targets on land in what his administration has said is an effort to destroy drug smuggling operations, according to two Navy officials. The last time the U.S. deployed a carrier was in late 2024 to the Red Sea to carry out weeks of airstrikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

 

"I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war, I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay? We're going kill them. You know? They're going be like, dead," President Trump said Thursday at a White House event.

 

The U.S. campaign has been limited to strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. Friday, the administration said it struck a boat in the Caribbean, bringing to at least 10 the number of boats attacked, with 43 people killed.

 

"If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda. Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you," Hegseth said on X Friday.

 

The move is also a sign of the administration's pivot away from Europe and the Middle East. Moving a carrier out of the Mediterranean takes critical combat power out of the region and sends mixed messages about the U.S.'s dedication to negotiating an end to the conflicts in Gaza and in Ukraine, according to the Navy officials.

 

It also ratchets up pressure on Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. The Trump administration has accused him of running a criminal cartel, a charge Maduro denies.” [1]

 

1. U.S. News: U.S. Aircraft Carrier To Be Sent to Caribbean. Holliday, Shelby; Seligman, Lara.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 25 Oct 2025: A6.