Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump has de­clared drug car­tels to be un­law­ful com­bat­ants and says the Unit­ed States is now in a “non-in­ter­na­tion­al armed con­flict,” ac­cord­ing to a Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion memo ob­tained by The As­so­ci­at­ed Press on Thurs­day, fol­low­ing re­cent U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean.

Con­gress was no­ti­fied about the des­ig­na­tion by Pen­ta­gon of­fi­cials on Wednes­day, ac­cord­ing to a per­son fa­mil­iar with the mat­ter who was not au­tho­rized to com­ment pub­licly and spoke on the con­di­tion of anonymi­ty.

The memo, star­tling in scope, sig­nals a po­ten­tial new mo­ment not just in the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s will­ing­ness to reach be­yond the norms of pres­i­den­tial au­thor­i­ty to wage war but in Trump’s stat­ed “Amer­i­ca First” agen­da. It al­so rais­es stark ques­tions about how far the White House in­tends to use its war pow­ers and if Con­gress will ex­ert its au­thor­i­ty to ap­prove — or ban — such mil­i­tary ac­tions.