Forget bounty hunting, government sanctioned American Pirates might be back on the menu!

Elon and Don Jr. have boosted the idea of giving out letters of Marquee

This would work very fast https://t.co/B9R7ppAVyi

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 28, 2025

If you’re looking for an effective, efficient, @DOGE-compliant way to combat Mexican drug cartels—especially those now threatening to target U.S. planes deporting illegal aliens—you will really like this thread proposing letters of marque and reprisal as a possible solution! https://t.co/m3OOez0KKZ

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 27, 2025

Letters of marque give people the authority to attack and capture vessels of enemy states. Basically state sanctioned piracy.

We could unironically get modern pirates of the Caribbean made up of American mercenary ships.

Unfortunately the biggest profile supporter rn seems to be Elon, but since he's actually sort of ish in government now maybe this extremely dramapilled way of handling cartels has a chance of happening.

Even suggesting this has potential for great seethe but it seems like all is quiet for now. I'd expect utter bewilderment at the suggestion by basically all libs if this gain any sort of actual traction past the Elon quote tweet.