‘As Long as This Is for White People’: Republicans Want Trump to Give Civilians the Right to Attack Ships in Caribbean, MAGA Sees It as an Open Call
Doubling down on lies that Venezuela is trafficking fentanyl, a Republican legislator introduced a bill that would allow private citizens to cosplay as pirates to seize Venezuelan ships under the pretense that they are combating drug smuggling. Mike Lee, a Republican senator from Utah, introduced the bill on Thursday, which he said would turn citizens into “Patriots of the Caribbean," which could create a maritime version of the Proud Boys. US President Donald Trump may soon be able to write letters allowing American citizens to cosplay as pirates to help Trump seize Venezuelan ships under the guise of combating drug smuggling under a bill proposed by Republican Senator Mike Lee, right. (Photo: Getty Images) What could possibly go wrong? "They push millions of dollars in fentanyl into our country with no regard for American lives,” said Republican Rep. Tim Burchett from Tennessee, who introduced the House version of the bill. ‘Who’s Going to Tell Her?’: Karoline Leavitt Mocked for Congratulating Dead President on Teaming Up with Trump “It's time to get creative about how we face these threats. These cartels present a serious risk to our national security, and this bill would authorize President Trump to commission Americans to help defend our homeland.” Many supporters expressed their eagerness to join in a response to Lee's announcement on the social platform X. "Boy I swear, if I could be a f--king PIRATE for the USA government, as long as this is for White people, than I am DOWN! Will seize that sh-t!," wrote one X user. "Mikey!!!! Please bro! Make it happen! You got millions of American White men down to run the cartel down like cattle and make uncle same BIG BUCKS! We get a big cut and we waste these clowns! YES!" "So I can train up to be a pirate in the name of the US? Seriously I'm asking and I'm going to start doing pushups, situps, and squats while I await the answer," another wrote. However, some critics slammed the lawmakers for the antiquated idea. "Well. It's official. I've lived long enough to see a member of the U.S. Senate be proud to announce he's fine with pirates and murder. Sad. And disgusting," one critic wrote. "That could lead to absolute disaster. No, that's why we have the most powerful military on earth and a chain of command to control their actions," another person replied. But if the Trump administration was serious about going after fentanyl smugglers, it would direct its attention to Mexico and China, which have cornered the international market on fentanyl, flooding the drugs through the Southwest border, according to a 2025 report published by the Drug Enforcement Administration, as well as a 2020 DEA report. Trump also does not seem to care about cocaine being smuggled into the United States, considering he pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández earlier this month. Hernández had been sentenced last year to 45 years in prison after he was convicted of smuggling 400 kilos of cocaine into the United States from 2004 to 2022. But Trump does care about oil, which is likely the real reason Republicans want to turn citizens into pirates. “They took our oil rights — we had a lot of oil there,” Trump recently told reporters, referring to how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez nationalized the country’s oil industry in 2007, which was when several American oil companies left after having their assets seized. “As you know they threw our companies out, and we want it back.” ‘Not How a Civilized Nation Should Act’ Lee points out that American piracy is permitted by the U.S. Constitution with government approval, but he does not mention that it was mostly done during the 1700s, following the founding of the nation, when the British had the most powerful navy in the world. And it has not been done since the War of 1812 against Great Britain. Today, the United States is considered to have the strongest navy in the world, followed by Russia and China, the latter of which produces the precursor ingredients for fentanyl before shipping them to Mexico. But Lee is counting on the ignorance of the populace to pass his bill, which he calls The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act. “Once a commonly used tool against piracy, letters of marque authorized private citizens to seize enemy vessels with their cargoes and crew,” Lee said in his statement. “The Cartel Marque and Reprisal Reauthorization Act would give President Trump authority from Congress to allow private citizens and groups to join in defending the United States from cartels on land and sea.” "Holy sh-t, they're going to go through with this, aren’t they?" another X user asked the lawmakers directly on X. The government still has not produced evidence that these boats are operated by drug cartels. If passed into law, citizens interested in cosplaying as pirates must receive a government-issued letter of marque, which would allow them to sail the Caribbean in search of boats to seize. But that could be any boat operated by a Latin American fisherman, since due process or actual evidence has not stopped Trump from launching more than two dozen strikes against boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia. One of these victims was Alejandro Andres Carranza Medina, a 42-year-old Colombian fisherman who was killed on Sept. 15, whose family has filed the first legal challenge against the military strikes, which many legal experts say are violations of international law. “Alejandro was murdered,” said international human rights attorney Dan Kovalik, who filed the legal petition on behalf of the family. “This is not how a civilized nation should act, just murdering people on the high seas without proof, without trial.” And now they are hoping Trump-adoring Americans will volunteer their time to break international law. But if it is true these boats are being operated by blood-thirsty cartels, then the U.S. Government would be placing citizens at risk, considering they would not have the privilege of striking the boats from the sky without warning, nor would they have the backing of the U.S. Coast Guard with Navy Special Forces which were used to seize a Venezuelan oil tanker earlier this month. “Trump is the equivalent of a Somali pirate for taking the Venezuelan tanker,” said a commenter on X. “What did he say about Somali’s? Oh, yeah. Garbage.”
