'Psychopath': JD Vance hammered after shocking joke about Trump's deadly boat strikes

Vice President JD Vance cracked jokes about President Donald Trump's lethal attacks on who he purported were drug traffickers hauling drugs into the United States, a video posted by independent journalist Aaron Rupar showed.

Twice, Trump has bombed boats the administration claimed were in international waters, calling them both an "imminent threat," though there are legal questions about whether Trump broke the law.

"I wouldn't go fishing right now in that area of the world," said Vance, speaking to an audience in Michigan.

It earned swift condemnation and anger among those online.

There are already conspiracy theories from some, saying that the boats could very easily have been people fishing and that there is no way to tell if they are carrying drugs on board without seizing the boats. So, the comment about not going fishing prompted several to ask if Vance was saying that because he was somehow aware that they were fishermen.

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, posted sarcastically, "Get it? The joke is that we might kill some totally innocent people! Haha that’s funny, right?"

Former Chicago Tribune metro editor Mark Jacobs wrote his own translation, "When JD Vance brags about the U.S. blowing up alleged drug boats and says, "I wouldn't go fishing right now in that area of the world," he's really saying: 'We're so reckless and dishonest that fishermen should worry that the U.S. will murder them and then falsely accuse them of drug trafficking.'"

Legal analyst Ken White used the moment to mock a recent op-ed by New York Times podcaster Ezra Klein. "By making jokes about killing innocent brown people at a political rally, JD Vance is doing politics the right way. —Ezra Klein," he wrote.

A historian noted that the comment came after Vance said people should be fired for saying mean things.

"The ability of Vance to pivot from demanding that people be reported and fired for saying mean things about a murder victim to glibly celebrating extrajudicial assassination is just incredible, if he's not a clinical psychopath, he sure plays one well," said Jonathan Parkes Allen on X.

It was a sentiment echoed by several who remarked that Vance could joke about murder, but no one else enjoys the same freedom.

"In addition to everything else that's reprehensible about this 'joke' about 'accidentally' murdering poor fishermen, don't forget that Trump made this same 'joke' as well, so JD is also debasing himself by mindlessly mimicking Trump's degeneracy," observed New Republic columnist Greg Sargent.