WASHINGTON – Within a week of Donald Trump’s election, Sen. Lindsey Graham counseled the president-elect to quickly send a message to the drug cartels from the White House.

“Blow up something,” Graham told Trump.

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The brazen military strike on a suspected drug-smuggling speedboat carrying 11 people from Venezuela this month is just what the South Carolina senator had in mind. But it has cleaved fresh divisions within the Republican Party over Trump’s campaign promise to keep the U.S. out of foreign entanglements and the reality of a commander in chief whose America First agenda is pursuing a tougher military stance.

And it’s raising stark questions about just how far Trump intends to wield his presidential power over the U.S. military without a robust ch

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