It has been a few weeks since President Donald Trump approved an air strike on a boat he claims was filled with drug cartel leaders. Already, both he and his administration have flopped in their ongoing effort to justify their efforts.
Writing for MSNBC, Rachel Maddow producer Steven Benen pointed out that Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that thanks to the recent fentanyl seizures, "258 million lives" were saved. There are only 340 million people in the U.S.
"The attorney general apparently wanted people to believe that fentanyl-laced pills had been poised to kill roughly three-quarters of the American population, which didn’t make a lot of sense," wrote Benen.
The writer went on to cite Trump's own words over the weekend, saying that about 300 million Americans died from drug overdose deaths just last year. As the Huffington Post reported, "he was off by almost 300 million." About 75,000 people died from an overdose last year.
Trump then got into a debate with a reporter who mentioned the president of Venezuela said Trump's bombing was "illegal."
“What’s illegal are the drugs that were on the boat, and the drugs that are being sent into our country, and the fact that 300 million people died last year from drugs. That’s what’s illegal," Trump ranted.
Bennen ripped Trump for math that wasn't remotely close to adding up.
"I realize that Trump’s approach to statistics and arithmetic has been a mess for many years, but it really ought to occur to him that such an exaggeration sounds absurd, since illicit drugs did not kill nearly 90% of the U.S. population in 2024," wrote Benen, assuming Trump knows the accurate count of the U.S. population.
Finding a legal justification for the strike also eluded him.
"There are standard procedures when U.S. officials suspect a boat of carrying drugs," explained Benen. Those processes aren't to blow it up and ask questions later. Rather, the boat must be searched, drugs seized, and individuals arrested and questioned. None of those procedures was followed.
"Were the 11 people on the boat actually members of the Tren de Aragua gang, as the president claimed? We don’t know," noted Benen. "Were there actual drugs on the boat? We don’t know that, either. Was it legal for the Trump administration to use lethal force against a civilian boat in international waters? There’s reason to believe it was not."
Earlier this year, Trump's administration arrested and deported several immigrants and asylum seekers, claiming their tattoos confirmed they were members of the same Venezuelan gang. He sent them to a brutal prison in El Salvador without due process, and has been accused of ignoring a judicial demand to return the planes.
Benen also pointed out that further complications were revealed when The New York Times uncovered evidence that the boat "had altered its course and appeared to have turned around before the attack started."
If true, it means Trump will struggle to prove the boat was an "imminent threat."
Thus far, there are no updates on the matter, and no clarification from the White House that 300 million Americans have not died from drug overdoses.
