President Donald Trump has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and says the United States is now in an “armed conflict." That's according to a Trump administration memo obtained Thursday by The Associated Press. The memo appears to represent an extraordinary assertion of presidential war powers, with Trump effectively declaring that trafficking of drugs into the United States amounts to armed conflict requiring the use of military force — a new rationale for past and future actions. The U.S. military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean. The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee says “every American should be alarmed that their President has decided he can wage secret wars.”