Aircraft carriers have toured the waters in the Caribbean and off Latin America before on what the Navy calls “good will” tours. But cutting short the Ford’s scheduled deployment by several months and redirecting it to Latin America for a possible combat mission amid the intensifying U.S. strikes on boats the administration says are carrying drugs is highly unusual, current and former Navy officials said.

“By adding the Ford to the already existing forces, this is a uniquely powerful naval combat group in the Caribbean in my memory,” said Adm. James Stavridis, a former head of U.S. Southern Command, now retired.

For decades, Republican and Democratic presidents have dispatched one or more aircraft carriers to the Middle East as a sign of U.S. military power and of American geopolitical resolve. President Trump’s second administration has focused more intently on securing the U.S. homeland and the Western Hemisphere. The deployment of the Ford to the region, which officials said had been under consideration for weeks, underscores that shift in national security priorities.

And this is a Quote from the Pentagon

The new Pentagon orders came hours after Mr. Hegseth announced that the U.S. military had killed six people on a boat suspected of smuggling drugs from South America, as the Trump administration’s lethal and legally disputed campaign continued to escalate.

The latest attack raised the death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign on suspected drug boats to 43 in 10 known strikes — eight in the Caribbean and two more this week in the eastern Pacific. Aircraft carriers have toured the waters in the Caribbean and off Latin America before on what the Navy calls “good will” tours. But cutting short the Ford’s scheduled deployment by several months and redirecting it to Latin America for a possible combat mission amid the intensifying U.S. strikes on boats the administration says are carrying drugs is highly unusual, current and former Navy officials said.

“By adding the Ford to the already existing forces, this is a uniquely powerful naval combat group in the Caribbean in my memory,” said Adm. James Stavridis, a former head of U.S. Southern Command, now retired.

For decades, Republican and Democratic presidents have dispatched one or more aircraft carriers to the Middle East as a sign of U.S. military power and of American geopolitical resolve. President Trump’s second administration has focused more intently on securing the U.S. homeland and the Western Hemisphere. The deployment of the Ford to the region, which officials said had been under consideration for weeks, underscores that shift in national security priorities.

The new Pentagon orders came hours after Mr. Hegseth announced that the U.S. military had killed six people on a boat suspected of smuggling drugs from South America, as the Trump administration’s lethal and legally disputed campaign continued to escalate.

The latest attack raised the death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign on suspected drug boats to 43 in 10 known strikes — eight in the Caribbean and two more this week in the eastern Pacific.