Donald Trump’s Summary Killings Of Dozens Aboard Boats Appear Based On A Massive Fentanyl Lie
President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the boats destroyed by U.S. forces were carrying the deadly opioid fentanyl. But according to officials who have briefed Congress, that isn’t true the boats were actually loaded with cocaine.
At a press conference on October 15, Trump described dramatic scenes of missiles striking drug boats, saying viewers could “see the fentanyl all over the ocean,” insisting that each strike saved “25,000 American lives.” He even doubled down in a social media post, claiming U.S. intelligence confirmed the boats carried fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
However, Pentagon briefings to Congress have painted a very different picture. Lawmakers were told that no fentanyl had been found in any of these incidents only cocaine. The boats, many of which were small fishing-style vessels, were not even capable of traveling to the U.S. without multiple refueling stops.
Representative Sara Jacobs from California said the Pentagon tried to argue that cocaine is somehow linked to fentanyl trafficking, but most members weren’t satisfied with that explanation. Lawmakers from both parties are growing increasingly frustrated, saying they’ve received little transparency about how and why these attacks are being carried out.
Senators from both parties have even posted public letters demanding more information, with Oklahoma Republican James Lankford saying, “We’re not getting answers. How do they choose these boats?”
Pentagon officials have admitted that they don’t know exactly who they’ve killed in these strikes. They said each boat had at least one suspected cartel member on a target list, but they couldn’t identify everyone aboard. That contradicts public statements by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who claimed U.S. intelligence knew exactly who was on each boat and where they were going.
When pressed for details, the Pentagon refused to confirm what drugs had been recovered or who the victims were. Instead, its spokesperson criticized lawmakers for sharing information from classified briefings, calling it a serious breach of national security.
Former State Department legal adviser Brian Finucane questioned whether the real reason for the strikes was something else entirely. He said the attacks seem more like a show of power than an anti-drug operation a way for Trump to look tough while pressuring Venezuela’s government.
Harrison Mann, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, believes the campaign is really about political goals. He said it’s designed to create flashy “kill-cam” footage to distract from domestic failures, test whether the military will follow illegal orders, and push regime change in Venezuela, much like the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Trump has long used America’s fentanyl crisis to justify tough trade and foreign policies blaming China for making the chemicals, Mexico for assembling the drugs, and even Canada, which experts say has almost no involvement in the fentanyl trade.
Critics say these recent attacks follow the same pattern — using false claims about fentanyl to justify violent actions. In this case, instead of tariffs or sanctions, the alleged smugglers are being killed by missiles.
In one incident on October 16, the U.S. Navy attacked a small boat in the Caribbean, killing most of those onboard. Two survivors were rescued from the water and sent back to their home countries instead of being charged in the U.S. This raised further questions about the logic of Trump’s approach: if these men were supposedly dangerous enough to bomb, why were they later released?
Former military officer Harrison Mann said the administration’s claims about saving lives from fentanyl overdoses are hollow when it is simultaneously cutting billions from addiction prevention and treatment programs the very services that actually reduce deaths.
Experts also point out that fentanyl production mainly happens in Mexico and sometimes within the U.S. itself, not Venezuela. Even if Venezuela were somehow involved, bombing boats wouldn’t stop production; it would simply move it somewhere else.
California Representative Ro Khanna said Trump’s strikes off Venezuela’s coast are both unconstitutional and morally wrong. He stressed that the president must get approval from Congress before using military force, adding, “These strikes are a stain on our country’s conscience. We must stand firmly against another regime-change war.”
In short, Trump’s claims about destroying fentanyl boats appear to be false. The vessels carried cocaine, not opioids. The killings were carried out without trials or accountability, and many lawmakers believe they had little to do with saving American lives — and everything to do with politics and image.
