US President Donald Trump speaks with the news media outside the White House today. Photo / Demetrius Freeman, The Washington Post
President Donald Trump disclosed today that the United States Government had “knocked off” what he said was a total of three alleged drug smuggling boats.
All were apparently from Venezuela, a country whose leader his Administration has villainised while dramatically escalating the use of deadly force in a bid to disrupt the Latin American narcotics trade.
The President, speaking to reporters outside the White House, offered no other details about the previously undisclosed incident.
The White House and the Pentagon declined to address questions about the third vessel, including when it was struck, where it was struck, and how many people were aboard.
Trump was responding to a question about what message the sudden spike in military activity was intended to send Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro when he informed reporters, “We knocked off actually three boats, not two, but you saw two”.
It appears the President was referring to two recent social media posts of his. Yesterday, he announced that US forces had killed three alleged drug smugglers earlier in the day. He made a similar announcement on September 2, saying the US military had killed 11 people in a boat also accused of transporting illegal narcotics to the US.
In both posts, which appeared on Trump’s Truth Social platform, the President included overhead video of the boats erupting in flames.
The Trump Administration has not identified what military assets were used in these operations and, to date, it has not publicised any evidence verifying who was on the boats - and what they were hauling - when US forces blew them up.
In remarks following yesterday’s announcement, Trump suggested his Administration was preparing to take military action against Latin American cartels that move illicit drugs over land as well.
He did not identify specific groups, saying only, “We’re going to be stopping them the same way we stopped the boats”.
Speaking outside the White House today, Trump accused Maduro, whom the Administration has labelled an illegitimate head of state, of directing the movement of narcotics and criminals - “they’re sending their prisoners”, the President said - from Venezuela to the US.
Trump has shown a particular fascination with the criminal gang Tren de Aragua, alleging Maduro controls the group.
“Stop sending Tren de Aragua into the US. Stop sending drugs into the US,” the President said. “Stop sending people from your prisons into our country.”
US intelligence agencies, in an assessment from earlier this year, have said that Maduro’s Government “probably does not have a policy of co-operating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the US”.
Instead, the intelligence agencies assessed, Venezuela’s Government mostly considers the group an internal security threat but sometimes tolerates its activities within the country.
The Administration’s claim that Maduro controls Tren de Aragua underpinned its invoking of the Alien Enemies Act as justification for deporting suspected gang members from the US without due process.
The Administration has designated a separate group, Cartel de los Soles, as a terrorist and drug-trafficking organisation allegedly headed by Maduro, and the Justice Department doubled to US$50 million an existing reward for information leading to the Venezuelan leader’s arrest.
In recent weeks, Maduro has called up thousands of reservists, saying the moves were necessary to prepare for an invasion.
Democrats in Congress have warned the Trump Administration’s “unauthorised” actions risk starting a war with Venezuela and flout lawmakers’ role in approving military operations.
Two senators - Adam Schiff (California) and Tim Kaine (Virginia) - have indicated they would probably stage a formal challenge to the President under the War Powers Act.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s top Democrat, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (New Hampshire), said the best path to oversight would be for the Administration to host a briefing for lawmakers, which it has so far refused to do.
The Pentagon sent some officials to meet select congressional staffers last week, but the briefing proved vague and underwhelming, said people familiar with the matter.
Convening such a briefing would require the support of Republicans, some of whom privately harbour concerns about the military strikes and the legal authority behind them. Shaheen predicted enough of her GOP colleagues would act to force a meeting in the coming weeks.
Samantha Schmidt, Tara Copp, Karen DeYoung, and Noah Robertson contributed to this report.
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