Democrats slam Trump admin’s drug boat strikes as admin vows protecting US

Democratic lawmakers have been mounting stress on the Trump administration over the collection of army strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats within the Caribbean since September, with the latest give attention to suspected drug couriers who survived an preliminary assault and have been killed in a subsequent assault.

‘If the reviews are true, [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth possible dedicated a struggle crime when he issued an unlawful order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. assault within the Caribbean,” Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen stated in an announcement earlier in December about assaults that killed suspected human traffickers.

The White Home advised Fox Information Digital on Friday that Democrats’ criticism echoes the “Maryland Man” hoax, referring to the arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member who was in Maryland illegally.

Abrego Garcia obtained robust help from Democratic lawmakers in March over his deportation to El Salvador, with lawmakers touring to El Salvador to fulfill with him and media describing him as a “man from Maryland.”

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President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of Warfare Pete Hegseth earlier than talking to a gathering of high U.S. army commanders at Quantico Naval Base, Virginia, September 30, 2025. (AP Picture/Evan Vucci)

“’Harmless Fisherman’ is the brand new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – simply because the media tried to painting MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the 12 months,’ they’re now operating cowl for overseas terrorists smuggling lethal narcotics supposed to kill People. President Trump is utilizing each component of American energy to tackle the cartels and cease lethal medicine from flowing into our nation – simply as he promised through the marketing campaign,” spokeswoman for the White Home Anna Kelly advised Fox Digital.

Trump has lengthy vowed to deal with the continued opioid epidemic and forestall overseas medicine and chemical precursors from flowing into the US. The administration has defended at the least 22 assaults on suspected drug criminals, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, as US safety towards cartels that wish to “poison People.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his spouse Jennifer Vasquez Sura attend a prayer vigil earlier than coming into a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) discipline workplace in Baltimore, Maryland on August 25, 2025. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Pictures)

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“These narco-terrorists are bringing medicine to our shores to poison People at house – they usually will not succeed,” Hegseth wrote in an post on X in November. “The Division will deal with them EXACTLY as we handled Al-Qaeda. We’ll proceed to trace, map, hunt and kill them.”

Democrats have more and more pushed again towards a pair of assaults on September 2 towards a suspected drug boat from Venezuela. The White Home confirmed that the army carried out an preliminary strike on the boat earlier than firing a second strike that killed two suspected human traffickers, prompting Democrats to say the federal government had dedicated potential struggle crimes.

“You have got two people in apparent misery, with none technique of locomotion, with a destroyed ship, who’ve been killed by america,” Consultant Jim Himes of Connecticut, the highest Democrat on the Home Intelligence Committee, advised reporters concerning the strikes earlier in December.

Whereas Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona shot again, “It is clearly not authorized to go after survivors within the water.”

Fox Information Digital reached out to Kelly and Himes’ respective places of work for touch upon the White Home assertion and the opioid epidemic within the US, however didn’t instantly obtain responses.

Rosen’s workplace advised Fox Information Digital on Friday: “If Donald Trump is severe about combating drug trafficking, why did he pardon the previous president of Honduras, who was convicted of smuggling lots of of tons of cocaine into america? And why has the Trump administration threatened to chop thousands and thousands of {dollars} in funding to handle the opioid epidemic? The American individuals need to know this.”

Republicans comparable to Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, famous that video from the survivors reportedly confirmed people who needed to “keep within the combat.”

“I noticed two survivors attempting to show round a ship loaded with medicine headed for america so they may keep within the combat,” Cotton stated.

Morgan Murphy, a Republican Senate candidate in Alabama, advised Fox Information Digital that he sees “full hypocrisy from a bunch of theater guys who do not care about lives being misplaced to the drug commerce” when requested about Democrats talking out concerning the strikes.

“For practically a decade, Democrats praised President Obama because the ‘Prince of Peace’ whilst his bombings in Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia killed lots of of civilians, none of which have been at struggle with america or focused Americans,” Murphy stated, referring to how former President Barack Obama confronted struggle crimes accusations from critics over his administration’s drone strikes and civilian casualties in international locations together with Pakistan, Yemen and Afghanistan.

Murphy served as head of public diplomacy for the president’s particular envoy for Russia and Ukraine within the Trump administration earlier than launching his Senate marketing campaign earlier this fall. He’s a captain within the US Navy Reserves and a veteran of the struggle in Afghanistan, the place he obtained the Protection Meritorious Service Medal and the Afghanistan Marketing campaign Medal, amongst others.

“However when President Trump steps up his personal efforts to cease human traffickers and drug sellers who’ve induced untold harm and killed thousands and thousands of People, they wish to topic the president and the secretary of struggle to a present trial,” he stated.

President Donald Trump introduced on Fact Social that he ordered a lethal assault on September 19 on a ship linked to a chosen terrorist group working within the U.S. Southern Command space of ​​duty. (@realDonaldTrump by way of Fact Social)

CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK UNDER CARIBBEAN STRIKE

The Trump administration launched the strikes after the president campaigned to finish the movement of narcotics into the US from international locations together with China, Mexico and Central and South America. The Trump administration turned its consideration to Venezuela, led by dictatorial President Nicolás Maduro, saying the US is engaged in an “armed battle” with drug cartels after the teams developed into transnational terror organizations.

The administration has defended the strikes as essential to curb the movement of opioid deaths within the US, whereas specialists have additionally stated the stress marketing campaign on Venezuela can be possible aimed toward ousting Maduro as chief of the oil-rich nation.

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The CDC discovered that an estimated 806,000 individuals died from opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2023. The opioid disaster is believed to be unfolding in three waves, starting within the Nineties with the rise in opioid prescriptions, the CDC reported, adopted by the second wave that started in 2010 when heroin overdoses spiked, and eventually the present third wave of deaths involving artificial opioids comparable to fentanyl.

The disaster has slowed from a peak of 81,806 opioid-related deaths in 2022, with 2023 marking the primary annual decline in deaths since 2018, based on CDC knowledge. There have been an estimated 79,358 opioid-related deaths in 2023, based on CDC knowledge.

Fentanyl is an artificial opioid that has grown in reputation and contributed to a spike in opioid deaths within the US lately. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Occasions by way of Getty Pictures)

An estimated 86 suspected drug traffickers have been killed within the strikes on Thursday.

Fentanyl has lengthy been current on the medical market to deal with people affected by extreme ache, however has since develop into an illegally manufactured substance by transnational felony organizations comparable to cartels.

Trump promised in his 2022 re-election announcement that cartels would face US wrath over overdose deaths upon his return to the Oval Workplace.

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“We’ll wage struggle on the cartels and forestall fentanyl and deadly medicine from killing 200,000 People yearly,” he stated in November 2024, previewing his administration.

A number of Republican members of the Home Armed Providers Committee and the Home Overseas Affairs Committee advised Fox Information Digital that the Trump administration is nicely inside its rights to behave towards the Maduro regime. They added that they’re anticipating extra data after a number of assaults on suspected Venezuelan drug boats and Trump’s elevated rhetoric towards Maduro.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is going through growing stress from the US (Ariana Cubillos/AP Picture)

“These boats are full of luggage of white powder, which consists primarily of fentanyl and different medicine as nicely,” Trump stated in September. “Every boat kills 25,000 individuals.”

Democrats in current many years have promoted fiery rhetoric aimed toward taking out overseas narcoterrorists, together with then-Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, calling for “one other D-Day” to finish the struggle on medicine in a 1989 speech that criticized Republican President George HW Bush’s administration for not taking robust sufficient motion towards the crack cocaine epidemic.

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“Let’s go after the drug lords the place they dwell with a world strike power. There must be no protected haven for these narco-terrorists and they should realize it,” Biden stated within the 1989 speech.

Elizabeth Elkind of Fox Information Digital contributed to this report.