A national security expert set the record straight for MAGA supporters on Monday about President Donald Trump's fatal attack on an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela, which many observers claimed is effectively murder under international law.
The strike, which took place in international waters, killed 11 people. The administration has claimed it was necessary because the vessel was running illegal narcotics to the United States, but hasn't put forward much evidence to support this or outlined what the basis would be for a military strike on the boat, even if this were true.
"In any other administration (including Trump's first one), someone in the Pentagon would have said: 'Mr. President, you cannot order the military to murder a bunch of people on a boat on the high seas,'" former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols, a frequent critic of the president, wrote on X over the weekend. "Designating them 'narco-terrorists' isn't a thing that lets you do that."
An account defending Trump jumped in later and replied to Nichols, "He made a decision that the people in the boat threatened the lives of young Americans. Lives were threatened. A president has the prerogative to eliminate the threat."
But Nichols was having none of that explanation.
"This isn't how anything works, not even during the GWOT, not when Reagan bombed Libya, not even when we invaded Grenada," wrote Nichols. "This is how it works in the movies, which is apparently how a lot of people now get their information about life and death matters of national policy."
As the controversy has unfolded, Trump has dropped cryptic hints that he may have more extrajudicial killings of suspected cartel members overseas planned, telling a reporter who asked whether such attacks could come in the future, "You're going to find out."