Trump sends 10 stealth fighter planes to Puerto Rico amid war on Caribbean drug cartels

[Jilly_in_VA]

Donald Trump is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to bolster US military operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean region, it was reported on Friday.

If follows a deadly US missile strike on Tuesday on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Trump administration insisted was carrying 11 Venezuelan drug traffickers, and comments by the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Wednesday that such attacks “will happen again”.

In another development on Thursday, the US accused Venezuela of the “highly provocative move” of buzzing one of its warships in international waters.

The deployment of strike aircraft to Puerto Rico, first reported by Reuters, citing two sources briefed on the matter, is a sharp escalation of the US president’s crackdown on what he sees as a Venezuelan-led drug-trafficking menace in the region.

The planes will arrive in the US territory next week and will be part of a sustained military campaign in the Latin American region that began with Tuesday’s airstrike, the news agency said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/05/trump-fighter-planes-puerto-rico-venezuela-drug-cartel

Another fucking distraction!

[DBoon]

1. stealth planes?

Have drug traffickers managed to get a hold of Chinese military radars?

[dutch777]

28. Talk about overkill. It's all just for the "big show". Venezuela sent out jets toward the fleet so....

...he had to make a ridiculous over the top response. Our ships could have easily sliced and diced those jets up had they wanted or needed to, no air force required. Maybe he could send a carrier or two.

[Klarkashton]

2. We are going to kill some more hapless fisherman.

In the name of Trump's frantic misdirections.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Haven't seen any headlines on drug seizures this year.

Think this is FAKE news.

[milestogo]

4. Big toys for a big baby.

[ImNotGod]

5. Like a little spoiled kid playing Army with his little plastic soldiers. nt

[KentuckyWoman]

6. Caligula

Raping little girls.
Grooming his own children
Watching police officers get beaten on J6
Women bleeding out in parking lots.
The wailing of brown children ripped from the arms of their mothers
The horror of Ukraine and Gaza
The cages
The fisherman
DC militarization
Now PR

He feeds on all of the pain. There is no redeeming quality in him. It will never end until he leaves and the sick people behind him are locked up or gone from this world.

[Jilly_in_VA]

14. Caligula "Little Boots"

That's literally what Caligula means. So Donny Dipshit is making up for his tiny feet by using his little boots (with lifts in them) to stomp all over countries that really haven't done anything to us, just because he CAN. He knows we're more powerful so he's going to smash them into submission, just like Mussolini did to Ethiopia, under the pretext that they're responsible for all the drugs coming to the US,, when in reality, most of them are coming from RIGHT HERE. Fucking idiot. It's all to distract from the Epstein files anyway.

[surfered]

7. Deny, deflect, distract from the Epstein files.

[AZJonnie]

12. I think it's the other way around

I think Trump loves the fact we're chasing our tails over Epstein, esp. when we perceive absolutely HORRIBLE things he's doing as mere 'distractions from Epstein'. I also think there's 0 chance that no matter what he did WRT Epstein that he will be impeached over it, let alone go to jail. I mean MAYBE if there's video of him raping a 14 year old, but if that existed, don't you think it would've come out by now? Hell, even if there were such a video he'd call it 'AI' and his cultists would lap it up as 'The Deep State' trying to take him down. Short of anything absolutely iron-clad, there's no real peril to him, especially given he also knows he can control exactly what does or does not come out, evidence-wise.

OTOH, this is yet another step on the road to fucking fascist rule. Everything he's doing is meant to bolster the idea that he can get the military involved in civilian law enforcement actions, and that he has the power to murder whoever he wants to at will. The entire country, its government, & its democracy all hang in the balance here. Indeed, the stability of the entire world does.

I think we categorize moves like this as a 'distraction' at our own peril

[surfered]

16. I doubt Trump is playing 3 dimensional chess. His staff said they're job was to keep him from eating the pieces.

Who’s the master mind?

[AZJonnie]

20. I'm just saying he and his handlers are happy if we're focused on Epstein while their evil plans go down

I think they smugly smile when they see us classifying actions like these as "distractions", as opposed to hair-on-fire momentous portents of calamity, IOW

And you're right, he probably is not an "architect" of the plot to steal our democracy and everything else that isn't nailed down. Not in any significant sense. Thus, I agree he's getting his marching orders from somewhere. Pretty clear those come from Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation and some of his fellow wacky billionaires like Thiel.

[surfered]

21. I wish I live long enough to hear the inside story. Then again it may never get told if his regimes never ends

[mwmisses4289]

22. Stephen Miller may be one.

T also listens to that looney woman. Vought, maybe?

[Jilly_in_VA]

32. Stephen Miller

without a doubt.

[Hekate]

8. He is insane & having a tantrum

[mwmisses4289]

9. I don't think this will last.

He thinks he's going after an easy target to take the resources, but two countries have already said if it comes to a fight they will side with Venezuela; and Brazil was also indicating that if trump continues with this bs, they, too would side with Venezuela. I expect more countries in that part of the world will also side with Venezuela for various reasons.
Just like with Canada and Greenland, when he sees other countries won't stand his nonsense, he will back off, and maybe claim his mission was successful.

[Norbert]

10. I thought this would be done.

I mean, it's been one day.

[C_U_L8R]

11. Do you really need billion dollar stealth fighters

to blow the shit out of some unfortunate fishing boats?

Does this boob have any adult supervision?

[Jilly_in_VA]

15. Marco Rubio is really flexing

He wants this as bad as the orange slime does, apparently.

[fujiyamasan]

13. lol fighter jets for drug cartels

L I think Donny just wants to play with his toys.

[Arazi]

17. I'm not at all convinced this is just for a war in Venezuela. Might be an attack on Panama

Traitor said he wanted to seize the Panama Canal…

[Fichefinder]

18. Minimum 100 maintenance techs ASAP, with 200 more loading their equipment

because the scheduled maintenance never stops, even in war.

[malaise]

19. They'd better keep an eye on

The weather

[Emile]

23. They closed down the navy base in Puerto Rico.

Where will they work out of?

[Hugin]

25. Some private airfield...

Wholly owned by TrumpCo. They were the highest bidder.

[Hugin]

24. Over a billion dollars worth of military might deploying to sink sailboats.

It’s first order strategic thinking like that which have made the shitgibbon the envy of the laughing stocks.

[marble falls]

26. Boys and their toys. My thought at eleven: If my folks didn't want me to shoot my brother in the butt, why ...

... did they give me the BB gun? TACO is eleven years old.

[NoMoreRepugs]

27. Hurry up and die Shit4Brains - my party planner won't wait forever.

[Autumn]

29. Mini wars for a miniscule "man"

[Pachamama]

30. Why am I feeling like this is going to lead to some very events

[Marthe48]

31. felon sends mightiest military weapons against defenseless

nations. The headlines are not accurate today. That's the second one I've had to rewrite! (pointing a finger at msm, not your post!)

[Jilly_in_VA]

33. Anybody remember 'Brave New World'?

Well, this is Centrifugal Bumblefuck. (Go look the reference if you've forgotten)

[Ping Tung]

34. Gosh. I didn't know that speedboats carried anti-aircraft missles.