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deminks

(11,524 posts)
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:05 PM Sep 2025

"We blew it up...on Trump's orders."

“We blew it up.” On Trump’s orders. Even Rubio wants a little distance from this.

Joyce White Vance (@joycewhitevance.bsky.social) 2025-09-03T18:50:21.173Z


“We blew it up.” On Trump’s orders. Even Rubio wants a little distance from this.

End snip.

They blew to bits a little fishing boat, looked like a bass boat we might have out on the lake, with 11 people on board. No room for massive amounts of drugs. There might have been a beer cooler. This was a message to the cartels? We're gonna blow up little boats in international waters and tell everyone it was the cartels? We're gonna post the murder death kill porn on our social media for our magats?

The 🍊 🐔 💩 🤡 can add 💣 murderer to his list.



66 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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"We blew it up...on Trump's orders." (Original Post) deminks Sep 2025 OP
Bass boats Greg_In_SF Sep 2025 #1
The only sure way to tell what it was Another Jackalope Sep 2025 #3
Exactly... no more boat, no way to prove or disprove anything. Therefore, slightlv Sep 2025 #15
Countdown OrangeJoe Sep 2025 #23
He wants to get a drug boat so bad he doesn't want to risk MadameButterfly Sep 2025 #37
That's very unsettling. ecstatic Sep 2025 #58
Cmon now, they were going after some of the largest sea bass ever rumored to exist in that big bad bass boat. nt taxi Sep 2025 #9
A pleasure boat can have 4 engines deepblue Sep 2025 #22
They can Greg_In_SF Sep 2025 #26
My neighbor had a boat with 3 Chrysler V8's in it. Just for fishing on Lake Michigan. OverBurn Sep 2025 #38
Half the boats in Miami do pfitz59 Sep 2025 #42
So you are saying it is ok to kill folks usedtobedemgurl Sep 2025 #55
Me? You talking to me? deepblue Sep 2025 #62
Do the DOD's brownshirts understand that "just following orders" is not a defense RockRaven Sep 2025 #2
Hitler had the Brownshirts murdered Kaleva Sep 2025 #7
Only The Leaders ProfessorGAC Sep 2025 #24
The loyalty of the Brownshirts wasn't in question Kaleva Sep 2025 #61
Agreed ProfessorGAC Sep 2025 #63
Verbal orders, I'm sure Fichefinder Sep 2025 #4
So we can kill a literal 'Boat load' of people just on a Suspision? mackdaddy Sep 2025 #5
Unfortunately WmChris Sep 2025 #16
Intercepting (easy) & interrogating is so much less CONVENIENT than extra-judicially killing 11 people. . . . /s . . nt Bernardo de La Paz Sep 2025 #6
The quaint idea of due process sammythecat Sep 2025 #28
OK, they just picked a boat to destroy and claimed it was cartel. ananda Sep 2025 #8
Reminds me of HWBush popsdenver Sep 2025 #14
Good comparison. Bush 2 invaded Iraq and took advantage of 9/11. ananda Sep 2025 #19
Bush 2 invaded Iraq because he thought that Sadamn had disrespected his daddy after the first Iraq war of Bush 1 LiberalArkie Sep 2025 #31
I thought popsdenver Sep 2025 #51
Reagan knocked over Grenada markodochartaigh Sep 2025 #30
And to wag the dog, to distract from the Beirut embassy bombing. Hassler Sep 2025 #36
Begging for more 9/11s. multigraincracker Sep 2025 #10
So many questions. maxsolomon Sep 2025 #11
That's not normal protocol for interdiction activities. haele Sep 2025 #57
Meanwhile Putin, Modi, Xi and Kim were yucking bronxiteforever Sep 2025 #12
F.cking Supreme Court! Buddyzbuddy Sep 2025 #13
I dont care if they were carrying 500 pounds of cocaine. Eko Sep 2025 #17
The whole thing is a disgrace. yardwork Sep 2025 #21
Proving yet again that the "Orange menace", in the words of Eddie Janko,... the nelm Sep 2025 #34
His dealer was late so... Dave Bowman Sep 2025 #18
That excuse didn't work at Nuremberg it's not going to work now. Ray Bruns Sep 2025 #20
Cost of doing business to the cartel lonely bird Sep 2025 #25
The orange monster is working day & night to make America an international pariah Hekate Sep 2025 #27
Extra judicial killing for an alleged offense that could not be the subject of capital punishment is murder. TomSlick Sep 2025 #29
I am expecting this will lead to us reading about the U.S. blowing up boats full of refugees. Sorry to express such ShazamIam Sep 2025 #32
Typical Of Cantaloupe Caligula... GB_RN Sep 2025 #33
Murdering 11 Venezuelans without knowing 100% Farmer-Rick Sep 2025 #35
Blow it up, film it, and use that clip of a evidence-less mass murder for political propaganda Justice matters. Sep 2025 #47
The Reform party in the UK would love to do something like this. malthaussen Sep 2025 #39
It was around 1,200 miles over the open sea from the markodochartaigh Sep 2025 #40
i guess its ok now for venezula to attack a US fishing boat in international waters claiming its a drug boat moonshinegnomie Sep 2025 #41
It was murder! Emile Sep 2025 #43
More than likely T tried to shake them down Hope22 Sep 2025 #44
This is basically piracy EndlessMaze Sep 2025 #45
I think this story... Mike Nelson Sep 2025 #46
Maybe Gulf of Tonkin important ... Turnip is waving his big stick below the Equator, ready to start another eppur_se_muova Sep 2025 #48
Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean LetMyPeopleVote Sep 2025 #49
Unfortunately, for the Sailors that pushed the button, "we were just following orders" is a weak defense maxrandb Sep 2025 #50
I believe Trump would use nuclear missiles if he thought he could personally benefited from it. Doodley Sep 2025 #52
It scares me that the Navy followed this order. nt Ilsa Sep 2025 #53
He has murder in his heart. GoodRaisin Sep 2025 #54
Were there children in the boat? Bernardo de La Paz Sep 2025 #56
Murder/Terrorism moondust Sep 2025 #59
Of course Nobody paying attention would Cha Sep 2025 #60
MaddowBlog-Team Trump faces tough questions following strike on boat in international waters LetMyPeopleVote Sep 2025 #64
Will this be his new method of handling scary immigrants or demonstrators? Ping Tung Sep 2025 #65
Impeach him! Joinfortmill Sep 2025 #66

Another Jackalope

(202 posts)
3. The only sure way to tell what it was
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:19 PM
Sep 2025

Would have been to stop and inspect it. Oops, too late.
Mistakes will not be revealed.

slightlv

(7,786 posts)
15. Exactly... no more boat, no way to prove or disprove anything. Therefore,
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 05:49 PM
Sep 2025

plausible deniability for trump. Gods, I hope one day it all comes to bit him in the ass all at once! He murdered 11 people, and the world does nothing but stand there, mouths agape. SMDH

OrangeJoe

(559 posts)
23. Countdown
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:19 PM
Sep 2025

3,2,1.. Stories come out that it was a fishing boat, a body is "discovered" and tattoos prove it was cartel members.

MadameButterfly

(4,039 posts)
37. He wants to get a drug boat so bad he doesn't want to risk
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:53 PM
Sep 2025

that there are no drugs. This way it will be whatever he says it is.

Remember when testing meant the Covid numbers were worse, so he didn't want to test?
The welfare of any people involved is irrelevant. It's about how it makes him look.
Due process doesn't just spare innocent people. It reveals the truth.

ecstatic

(35,074 posts)
58. That's very unsettling.
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 12:21 AM
Sep 2025

I guess if he killed Americans we will learn about it soon enough... from the families. Maybe.

taxi

(2,710 posts)
9. Cmon now, they were going after some of the largest sea bass ever rumored to exist in that big bad bass boat. nt
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:45 PM
Sep 2025

deepblue

(52 posts)
22. A pleasure boat can have 4 engines
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:12 PM
Sep 2025

The Nor-Tech 450 Sport
https://www.boattrader.com/boat/2022-nor-tech-450-sport-9869265/?gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=22406643580

The Midnight Express
https://www.boattrader.com/boat/2025-midnight-express-43-open-9758784/?gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=22406643580

The Statement 380 Open
https://www.boattrader.com/boat/2021-statement-380-open-9574662/?gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=22406643580

You get the idea.

It doesn't matter who was on board. They weren't hailed or interdicted. They weren't even treated like drug smugglers.

Since anybody could have been on that boat it was a depraved heart murder at a minimum. Which fits Trump's mentality perfectly.

usedtobedemgurl

(2,048 posts)
55. So you are saying it is ok to kill folks
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 11:02 PM
Sep 2025

Instead of arresting or retaining them? Or what do you mean by implying this boat was doing nefarious activities?

deepblue

(52 posts)
62. Me? You talking to me?
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 06:18 AM
Sep 2025

I don't imply that the people operating the boat were doing anything nefarious. I plainly said that "anybody could have been on that boat." If you prioritize the issues correctly, that tops all lesser matters. "Anybody" includes a night-fishing family. Or stargazers. In reference to drug smugglers, if the murderers of these people really suspected that was the case, the procedure is for the Coast Guard to interdict them in US waters. I'm not sure it's legal to interdict a ship in international waters even if it is legitimately suspected of transporting drugs intended for sale in the US, which nobody who thinks carefully believes is the case. These people on the boat weren't suspected of drug smuggling by trumpadmin. Trumpadmin just wanted to kill some people.

Just leave things be, or think more carefully. Too many people are looking for petty arguments. Like the guy now saying the boat isn't a million dollar boat, as if that relates to anything, after I showed there are at least several boat models with 4 engines. And others have come up with more. He didn't google it. That's the problem.

RockRaven

(19,352 posts)
2. Do the DOD's brownshirts understand that "just following orders" is not a defense
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:14 PM
Sep 2025

for murdering foreign civilians (in the inconceivable instance that someone gains power who gives a damn)?

ProfessorGAC

(76,683 posts)
24. Only The Leaders
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:22 PM
Sep 2025

The rank & file fell right into line. No need to kill them. Their fealty was assured.

Kaleva

(40,360 posts)
61. The loyalty of the Brownshirts wasn't in question
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:25 AM
Sep 2025

To gain the support of the military, Hitler had to neutralize the SA as an organization

ProfessorGAC

(76,683 posts)
63. Agreed
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 07:16 AM
Sep 2025

Bur, there were concerns before Long Knives were whether the SA would follow Hitler or Rohm.
Once Rohm and his lieutenants were gone, there was no such concern.

mackdaddy

(1,973 posts)
5. So we can kill a literal 'Boat load' of people just on a Suspision?
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:23 PM
Sep 2025

No interdiction, no evidence, no inspection. So we shoot them all dead?

Will these be the Rules of Engagement when the Texas National Guard invades Chicago?

Bernardo de La Paz

(60,320 posts)
6. Intercepting (easy) & interrogating is so much less CONVENIENT than extra-judicially killing 11 people. . . . /s . . nt
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 04:26 PM
Sep 2025

sammythecat

(3,597 posts)
28. The quaint idea of due process
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:28 PM
Sep 2025

has now been replaced with the divine right of kings.

I understand they were in international waters and had four large outboard engines, but still... And why would 11 smugglers be on a boat of that size?

popsdenver

(2,293 posts)
14. Reminds me of HWBush
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 05:45 PM
Sep 2025

and his invasion of Panama but on a much smaller scale ...........Similar situation, Reagan was under massive pressure about something, and the Repubs needed a diversion.....

ananda

(35,131 posts)
19. Good comparison. Bush 2 invaded Iraq and took advantage of 9/11.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 05:58 PM
Sep 2025

Somehow, Republicans know how to use wars to their advantage.

I hate that.

LiberalArkie

(19,796 posts)
31. Bush 2 invaded Iraq because he thought that Sadamn had disrespected his daddy after the first Iraq war of Bush 1
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:39 PM
Sep 2025

popsdenver

(2,293 posts)
51. I thought
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 10:16 PM
Sep 2025

they intended all along on going into IRAQ, but went into Afghanistan on the premise that THEY were part of the 9/11 hijackers....and to provide them more time to amass the obliteration of Iraq.........

Cheney/Rummy were behind going after Iraq to go after the massive oil reserves. He got Halliburton and five other oil companies together and they divided Iraq up when the war was over.........Plus Cheney got Haliburton to supply all the general non combat worker jobs at a great profit......

Greatest Con job ever, up until Trump........Turned out Afghanistan and Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 hijackers as I remember......almost all of them were saudi's

maxsolomon

(38,698 posts)
11. So many questions.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 05:31 PM
Sep 2025

The US Navy spotted a suspected smuggling boat in international waters, flying a Venezuelan flag, so THEY ASKED THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IF THEY SHOULD STOP IT OR DESTROY IT?

haele

(15,392 posts)
57. That's not normal protocol for interdiction activities.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 11:52 PM
Sep 2025

The Navy and Coast Guard not only have policies and tactical tracking and identity programs, there's the UCMJ. And Rules of Engagement.
You can't just shoot something that isn't a danger to you or an immediate danger to the mission. Maybe if there were dirty nukes onboard and the boat was right off Key West and racing in...

But a souped up but rickety fishing boat off the coast of Venezuela that might make it halfway to Haiti before it falls apart?
I don't care if it's going to meet Dr. No's submarine to drop off contraband.

You track the damn thing until it has to stop and then go up and interrogate the crew and check out the boat. Like is always done. Even when dealing with Cartel boats and subs.

If this isn't some grainy AI slop put together to make Caligula bounce around and clap his tiny hands in triumph, there's got to be a Navy Officer that's going to end up at a Courts Martial. Blowing up a boat that was not dangerous is a War Crime.
Of course, the GOP "War" administrations never punished pilots who randomly bombed the hell out of tribal weddings, or soldiers who took out Arab families traveling in trucks or vans when they were feeling squirrelly, either. So maybe I'm misplacing my disgust and anger.

bronxiteforever

(11,212 posts)
12. Meanwhile Putin, Modi, Xi and Kim were yucking
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 05:41 PM
Sep 2025

it up. Laughing stock of the world under Trump/Rubio. The US can’t play with the big boys so they spend their time on Venezuela. American weakness brought to us by the wonderful GOP.

Eko

(9,993 posts)
17. I dont care if they were carrying 500 pounds of cocaine.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 05:55 PM
Sep 2025
He just killed them.
That's not me, that's not a country I want to be a part of.
We have the rule of law, not the rule of the gun.

yardwork

(69,352 posts)
21. The whole thing is a disgrace.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:06 PM
Sep 2025

Trump had them murdered and then he released the video of their deaths like it's a trophy.

Just appalling.

the nelm

(270 posts)
34. Proving yet again that the "Orange menace", in the words of Eddie Janko,...
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:46 PM
Sep 2025

is a "rough tough, cream puff" and ordering someone else to do his dirty work.

lonely bird

(2,934 posts)
25. Cost of doing business to the cartel
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:24 PM
Sep 2025

As long as demand is there they will find a way to meet it.

Hekate

(100,133 posts)
27. The orange monster is working day & night to make America an international pariah
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:25 PM
Sep 2025

We will stand alone

TomSlick

(13,009 posts)
29. Extra judicial killing for an alleged offense that could not be the subject of capital punishment is murder.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:32 PM
Sep 2025

Trump has SCOTUS created immunity. Rubio, Hegseth, and anyone down the chain that gave the order should be prosecuted. There is no statute of limitations for murder.

ShazamIam

(3,128 posts)
32. I am expecting this will lead to us reading about the U.S. blowing up boats full of refugees. Sorry to express such
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:39 PM
Sep 2025

negative thoughts about possible actions by my own government.

Farmer-Rick

(12,653 posts)
35. Murdering 11 Venezuelans without knowing 100%
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:51 PM
Sep 2025

That it was a drug boat. So much easier just to blow it up. They are only Venezeuelans afterall. No one cares about those folks. Especially since they dared to vote in a socialist. That'll teach those Venezuelans not to vote in socialist.

Huh, seems Putin isn't concerned about the war pedo Trump started in Venezuela. Putin was an ally of Maduro's. Not sure why he let pedo Trump pull this stunt. Are more dead Venezuelans coming in the near future?

Justice matters.

(9,785 posts)
47. Blow it up, film it, and use that clip of a evidence-less mass murder for political propaganda
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 07:13 PM
Sep 2025

Only murderous Fascist regimes do that repeatedly.

malthaussen

(18,564 posts)
39. The Reform party in the UK would love to do something like this.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:53 PM
Sep 2025

For people like them, human beings are just trash. Including each other.

-- Mal

markodochartaigh

(5,545 posts)
40. It was around 1,200 miles over the open sea from the
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 06:54 PM
Sep 2025

US. It seems to me that it is just another attempt to provoke Venezuela.

moonshinegnomie

(4,014 posts)
41. i guess its ok now for venezula to attack a US fishing boat in international waters claiming its a drug boat
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 07:03 PM
Sep 2025

Hope22

(4,742 posts)
44. More than likely T tried to shake them down
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 07:05 PM
Sep 2025

And the leaders said buzz off. The infant blew them up out of anger. Everyone else has played his game and paid up when he threatened. This is just a word to the rest of us. Pay up ar die!

EndlessMaze

(86 posts)
45. This is basically piracy
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 07:06 PM
Sep 2025

Now our once proud navy has been reduced to committing acts of piracy on the high seas on the order of the orange nemesis.

Mike Nelson

(10,943 posts)
46. I think this story...
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 07:06 PM
Sep 2025

... is MUCH more important than it's being played. Things like the Iran attack are long-standing missions considered by recent Presidents and their teams regularly. All have taken military actions. This boat "obliteration" is something very different. It shows the current President has no problem ordering the immediate deaths of everyone on a craft, and the present military leaders WILL act - immediately.

eppur_se_muova

(41,932 posts)
48. Maybe Gulf of Tonkin important ... Turnip is waving his big stick below the Equator, ready to start another
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 07:25 PM
Sep 2025

Mexico ... Nicaragua ... Guatemala ... Honduras ... El Salvador ... Cuba ... Vietnam ... Haiti ... Panama ... "intervention" ...


How many Latin American countries has the US NOT "intervened" in ??

I'm building up my gag reflex so I can deal with the "Trump Doctrine" when it's declared ...

LetMyPeopleVote

(179,756 posts)
49. Legal Issues Raised by a Lethal U.S. Military Attack in the Caribbean
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 08:06 PM
Sep 2025

Here is a good discussion of the legal issues in the use of lethal military force when we are NOT at war.

https://www.justsecurity.org/119982/legal-issues-military-attack-carribean/

On Sept. 2nd, the Trump administration announced what it described as a “lethal strike” against an alleged drug smuggling vessel in the Caribbean. In a post on social media accompanied with a video of the strike, President Donald Trump stated that the attack was “against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists.” Trump also noted that Tren de Aragua had previously been designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The social media post also asserted that the strike had occurred in international waters and killed “11 terrorists.”

Although the facts are still emerging, the Trump administration’s extraordinary lethal attack on this purported smuggling vessel – and its vow that the strike was a start of a campaign – raise a number of significant potential legal issues. And even apart from these legal concerns, the strike constitutes a deeply troubling gratuitous use of the military that resulted in the unnecessary killing of 11 individuals. ......

A U.S. president may direct the use of military force pursuant to either (1) a congressional authorization for the use of force/declaration of war or (2) inherent authority under Article II of the Constitution, typically as commander in chief of the U.S. military. The scope of the president’s authority to direct the use of force under Article II in the absence of congressional authorization is contested. Although there is broad agreement that the president may use force to repel “sudden attack,” the U.S. executive branch has taken a much more expansive view of the president’s unilateral war powers.

Here the Trump administration will almost certainly rely solely on Article II of the Constitution as the source of authority for the attack on this vessel. Despite labelling the targets “narcoterrorists,” there is no plausible argument under which the principle legal authority for the U.S. so-called “war on terror”—the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force—authorizes military action against the Venezuelan criminal entity Tren de Aragua.

Under the executive branch’s two-prong test for when a president may use force without congressional authorization, the contemplated operation must advance an important “national interest” and must not amount to “war in the constitutional sense,” which the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has recognized as an outer limit on the president’s unilateral warmaking authority. That said, OLC precedent marks out remarkably wide latitude, with the first prong in particular having been critiqued as being unconstraining, and it is not clear whether it would have limited the president in this instance even assuming OLC advice was sought before the strike took place.

Further, though Trump and others in his administration have emphasized the prior designation of Tren de Aragua as an FTO, such designation does not by itself convey authority to use force. Nonetheless, such FTO designations are widely and mistakenly perceived as authorizing such action within the executive branch. Thus, designation of Tren de Aragua and a number of other Latin American criminal entities as FTOs in February foreshadowed this week’s attack in the Caribbean, despite providing no actual legal authority for it.

This is a well done legal article that also goes into the use of force if we were at war



I think that trump appears to have committed a crime or war crime in this attack.

maxrandb

(17,424 posts)
50. Unfortunately, for the Sailors that pushed the button, "we were just following orders" is a weak defense
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 10:13 PM
Sep 2025

I served 28.5 years in the United States Navy.

I think I was wrong about the integrity and honor I believed my Shipmates had.

Doodley

(11,904 posts)
52. I believe Trump would use nuclear missiles if he thought he could personally benefited from it.
Wed Sep 3, 2025, 10:26 PM
Sep 2025

moondust

(21,286 posts)
59. Murder/Terrorism
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 12:29 AM
Sep 2025

Like tossing a bomb into a group of strangers.

They'll probably make up a story about having some inside information.

Cha

(319,027 posts)
60. Of course Nobody paying attention would
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 12:33 AM
Sep 2025

put it past him.. But JHC!! MF Asshole Murderous Fucking GD Treasonous Idiot.

It wasn't the USA that did this .. it is a Russian Takeover of our Country with this Orange Despot in charge turning our Military into Traitors..

LetMyPeopleVote

(179,756 posts)
64. MaddowBlog-Team Trump faces tough questions following strike on boat in international waters
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:19 PM
Sep 2025

You’ve heard the expression “shoot first and ask questions later”? This appears to be a rare literal example of the phenomenon.

Team Trump faces tough questions following strike on boat in international waters
www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

2kindsjustice (@2kindsjustice.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T15:47:11.570Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/team-trump-faces-tough-questions-strike-boat-international-waters-rcna229049

When retired Gen. H.R. McMaster served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser during the president’s first term, he didn’t exactly enjoy White House meetings. McMaster wrote in his memoir that Trump would routinely become distracted and blurt out “outlandish” ideas during discussions, including one especially memorable instance in which the president wanted to know, “Why don’t we just bomb the drugs” before they enter the United States?

That anecdote came to mind this week. The Associated Press reported:

President Donald Trump said Tuesday the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela and was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang. The president said in a social media posting that 11 people were killed in the rare U.S. military operation in the Americas, a dramatic escalation in the Republican administration’s effort to stem the flow of narcotics from Latin America.


.....Were the 11 people on the boat actually members of the Tren de Aragua gang? The president claimed they were, but then again, the president claims lots of things that have no basis in reality, and it’s not yet clear whether there might’ve been innocent people on board.

Were there actual drugs on the boat? Trump insisted there were, but there’s no publicly available evidence to support the claim. And even if there were drugs on board, U.S. officials could’ve intercepted the boat, seized its cargo, arrested those on board (or at least offered them an opportunity to surrender) and put them on trial — without blowing anyone up.......

When JD Vance was asked about the administration’s legal authority in this instance, his answer suggested the vice president — a Yale Law School graduate — was confused by what the phrase “legal authority” means.

Q: On the Venezuela vessel strike, what legal authority were you guys working under?

JD VANCE: The legal authority is there are people who are bringing -- literal terrorists -- who are bringing deadly drugs into our country

Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-09-03T20:09:59.147Z


......Around the same time, Ryan Goodman, an NYU law professor and former special counsel at the Pentagon, wrote via Bluesky, “I literally cannot imagine lawyers coming up with a legal basis for lethal strike of suspected Venezuelan drug boat. Hard to see how this would not be ‘murder’ or a war crime under international law that DoD considers applicable.”

Looking ahead, there are a handful of angles to this story that are worth keeping in mind. The first is that there’s no reason to assume the questions will simply go away. Second, if Trump is still campaigning for a Nobel Peace Prize, he might want to start lowering his expectations, since the committee tends to frown on extrajudicial killings.

Third, Americans who voted for Trump hoping for a restrained foreign policy and a reluctance to use military force now have fresh reason to question their decision.

Ping Tung

(4,370 posts)
65. Will this be his new method of handling scary immigrants or demonstrators?
Thu Sep 4, 2025, 01:28 PM
Sep 2025

Just kill them rather than arrest them so you don't have to bother with writs and habeas corpus laws?

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