"Earlier this morning," he announced on the afternoon of September 2, 2025, "U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility."
asserted
Forces → announce → responsibility
That attack should "serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America," he said.
asserted
he → serve → America
Those 11 exclamation points might have seemed like overkill.
uncertain
points → seem → overkill
But Trump was right that Americans should have been paying attention.
asserted
Americans → pay → attention
His Truth Social post, which included a 29-second video clip showing a speedboat in the Caribbean Sea exploded by a missile, marked a radical and alarming shift in U.S. drug policy.
asserted
which → include → policy
Historically, the Coast Guard had tried to stop seaborne drugs by intercepting suspected smugglers and searching their vessels.
asserted
Guard → try → vessels
It would seize any contraband it discovered and arrest the crew members.
asserted
it → seize → members
The Coast Guard still does that.
asserted
Guard → do → that
But Trump views that approach as insufficiently aggressive.
asserted
Trump → view → approach
Under his new policy, the U.S. military blows up vessels believed to be transporting cocaine, obliterating them along with their crews.
asserted
military → blow → crews
There is no need to confirm that any given boat is in fact carrying drugs, let alone prove that allegation in court.
asserted
boat → be → court
By treating criminal suspects as "unlawful combatants" in an "armed conflict" with the United States, Trump has managed to circumvent both due process and the constraints imposed by the law of war.
asserted
Trump → treat → war
Interdiction "doesn't work," Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained the day after the first boat strike.
asserted
Rubio → work → strike
"Instead of interdicting it, on the president's orders, we blew it up.
asserted
we → interdict → it
And it'll happen again."
asserted
it → happen → ?
Rubio was right that it would happen again.
asserted
it → happen → ?
As of late August 2026, U.S. forces had used missiles to destroy boats in the Caribbean and the Eastern Pacific 68 times under Trump's orders, remotely killing 227 people in cold blood without any semblance of due process.
asserted
forces → use → process
With a few exceptions, we do not know who those people were, let alone what evidence the government might have had to implicate them in drug trafficking.
uncertain
government → know → trafficking
But Trump assures us they were all "narcoterrorists" who richly deserved their fate, even though they would not have faced the death penalty under U.S. law and, judging from what happened to drug smugglers arrested around the same time, probably would not have been prosecuted at all if they had been lucky enough to be caught by the Coast Guard.
asserted
they → assure → Guard
All of this, Trump insists, is perfectly legal and amazingly effective.
asserted
Trump → insist → this
Although there is ample reason to reject both of those claims, the president has been completely unfazed by objections from legal experts, drug policy specialists, and members of Congress.
uncertain
president → be → Congress
A year after Trump launched his bloodthirsty antidrug campaign, the summary execution of alleged drug smugglers had become the new normal.
asserted
execution → launch → smugglers
By literalizing the war on drugs, Trump has flouted the law, undermined basic principles of justice, and perverted the mission of the U.S. military, erasing the traditional distinction between combatants and civilians.
asserted
Trump → literalize → combatants
Trump Doesn't Know Who He Is Killing
asserted
He → know → Who
As Trump told it, the inaugural boat strike, which happened in international waters near the northeastern coast of Venezuela, killed "11 terrorists."
asserted
which → tell → terrorists
How did he know they were terrorists?
asserted
they → know → ?
Because, he said, all 11 men had been "positively identified" as members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, "a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization" (FTO) implicated in "mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and [the] Western Hemisphere."
asserted
men → say → States
Tren de Aragua has been linked to a variety of crimes, including drug and weapon trafficking, prostitution, kidnapping, extortion, robbery, and migrant smuggling.
asserted
Aragua → link → trafficking
The motivation for all those activities is financial profit, as opposed to political or religious ideology.
asserted
motivation → oppose → ideology
Yet terrorism usually is defined as "the unlawful use of violence or threats to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government, with the goal of furthering political, social, or ideological objectives."
asserted
terrorism → define → objectives
Trump was right that the State Department nevertheless had listed Tren de Aragua as a "foreign terrorist organization," consistent with his January 2025 executive order instructing the secretary of state to designate that gang and "certain international cartels" as FTOs.
asserted
Department → list → FTOs
As of August, the State Department listed nearly 100 FTOs, 20 of which were Latin American groups that had been added since the beginning of Trump's second term.
asserted
that → list → term
In addition to Tren de Aragua, they included drug-trafficking organizations such as the Ecuadorian gang Los Lobos, the transnational gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), and the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels.
asserted
they → include → gang
While the Trump administration has specifically mentioned Tren de Aragua as the target of some boat strikes, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also has referred more generally to "designated terrorist organizations."
asserted
Hegseth → mention → organizations
Those designations are under the control of the executive branch, which can expand the list whenever it wants, although Congress theoretically can block a new listing if it acts within seven days.
asserted
it → expand → days
More to the point, an FTO designation is not a license to kill alleged members of a listed group at will.
asserted
designation → kill → will
Rather, it means that the Treasury Department can block transactions involving the group's assets and that the Justice Department can prosecute people for supplying it with "material support or resources."
asserted
Department → mean → support
Nor was it clear how the government had "positively identified" all 11 men on the boat as "Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists."
asserted
government → identify → Narcoterrorists
The sheer number of people aboard the vessel, which was notably larger than the crews on other boats that were subsequently attacked, cast doubt on that claim.
uncertain
that → attack → claim
As The Intercept's Nick Turse noted three days after the attack, an 11-man crew would be "unusually large" for a drug boat.
asserted
crew → note → boat
…and 163 more, not listed.
The Aporia
