The White House insists there’s evidence to justify the president’s extrajudicial military strikes. It just doesn’t want to share that evidence with anyone.
Maddow Blog | As deadly boat strikes continue, Trump suggests evidence is unimportant www.msn.com/en-us/news/p...
— Jim's Blue 🌊🌊 Politics, ANTI Trump/Musk‼ï¸âš¡âš¡8647 (@jimdjimp1959.bsky.social) 2025-10-17T17:14:57.419Z
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/deadly-boat-strikes-continue-trump-suggests-evidence-unimportant-rcna238051
The Associated Press reported last week, “The Trump administration has yet to provide underlying evidence to lawmakers proving that alleged drug-smuggling boats targeted by the U.S. military in a series of fatal strikes were in fact carrying narcotics.”
Asked for some kind of explanation, White House press secretary
Karoline Leavitt insisted that Trump has been “very transparent about these strikes.” But she appears to have missed the point: Trump has been transparent about the existence of these strikes, but he’s kept the underlying evidence (such as it may be) about the strikes under wraps.
It was against this backdrop that The New York Times reported:
Trump was asked about members of Congress who were concerned that they did not receive enough information about who was actually on the ships targeted in the Caribbean. Trump said the boats were ‘loaded with drugs, and that’s the thing that matters.’ He added that there was ‘fentanyl dust all over the boat’ after the attack.
The whole policy, in other words, is rooted in a “trust me” defense.
Q: There are Republicans and Democrats concerned that they are not getting information about who is on those ships
TRUMP: Well, but they are given information that they are loaded up with drugs, and that's the thing that matters
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-10-15T20:13:13.675Z
......What’s more, it’s not just the White House’s usual critics who have taken notice. NBC News reported this week that members of Congress from both parties are “growing concerned” over a lack of information from the administration “about the intelligence and strategy underlying its strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean.”
The report added, “
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have left briefings about the strikes frustrated with the lack of information. ... Some have asked for unedited video of the strikes, reflecting the kind of basic information they seek, but the administration has so far refused to provide it.”
Something to keep in mind the next time Trump and his allies try to peddle silly boasts about his embrace of “transparency.”
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