Shots Fired! The US Military Sinks a Venezuelan Drug Runner (Updated)

During Tuesday's press conference, President Trump not only dispelled rumors that he was dead (see Trump Blows Up Democrat Conspiracies About His Health, Peter Doocy Provides the Hilarious Capper – RedState), but used the occasion to announce that the U.S. military had destroyed a drug-running boat from Venezuela in the Caribbean. “When you leave the room," he announced, "you’ll see that we just, over the last few minutes, literally, shot a boat — a drug-carrying boat,”

Secretary of State and most everything else (see Marco Rubio Has Cabinet Meeting in Stitches Over Labor Day Comment (Video) – RedState) Marco Rubio used X to make the announcement.

As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 2, 2025

As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.

That's about the limit of our knowledge right now. This seems to be the first instance of the U.S. military using deadly force against a drug runner, though warning and disabling shots have been fired in the past.

This action takes place in an atmosphere of barely restrained conflict between the U.S. and Venezuela. President Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to designate members of the Venezuelan-based transnational gang and terror organization Tren de Aragua as enemy aliens to expedite their expulsion.

This executive order invokes the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in response to national security threats posed by Venezuelan-designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA). The order cites TdA's clandestine crimes in the U.S., including drug and weapons trafficking, murder, kidnapping, extortion and infiltration of migration routes as justification for the order. In response, all Venezuelan citizens who are 14 years old or older, identified as TdA members and are not naturalized or lack non-permanent residency in the U.S. will be liable to immediate apprehension, restraint, securement and removal as alien enemies per the invoked act. The U.S. attorney general and secretary of homeland security will be tasked with effectuating the executive order consistent with applicable law.

Trump has also placed a whopping $50 million bounty—Osama bin Laden only warranted a $25 million bounty—on Nicolas Maduro and deployed a U.S. Navy task force including the Aegis-class cruiser USS Lake Erie, the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, and the 22d Marine Expeditionary Unit to Venezuela's Caribbean coast. It was almost certainly this task force that carried out the operation announced by President Trump, and the ship almost certainly belonged to TdA.

Trump Administration Just Put a Massive $50 Million Bounty on a Dictator’s Head

Trump Sends the Navy, Marines Down the Venezuelan Coast - Here's Why

Today's operation demonstrates that reports in early August that President Trump had authorized military action against drug cartels were accurate.

President Trump has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations, according to people familiar with the matter.
The decision to bring the American military into the fight is the most aggressive step so far in the administration’s escalating campaign against the cartels. It signals Mr. Trump’s continued willingness to use military forces to carry out what has primarily been considered a law enforcement responsibility to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.
The order provides an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels.
U.S. military officials have started drawing up options for how the military could go after the groups, the people familiar with the conversations said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.

Coincidentally, today's attack on what seems to be a Venezuelan-based drug boat comes as Maduro was begging President Trump to back off.

President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela has warned that he would respond to any U.S. military action with an “armed fight” and claimed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was trying to draw President Trump into a war in the Caribbean that would mar his reputation.
“Mr. President, Donald Trump,” the Venezuelan leader said on Monday, “watch out, because Mr. Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood.”
...
Mr. Maduro, in his news conference, called the Venezuelan people “warriors” who would respond to any incursion with “maximum rebellion.” But as he seemingly tried to project force, Mr. Maduro also called for peace, an apparent attempt to appeal to Mr. Trump’s campaign promise to end wars — not start them.
He mentioned the Nobel Peace Prize — an apparent allusion to Mr. Trump’s stated interest in receiving it — and said that Mr. Rubio, a longtime proponent of aggressive action that could lead to a change of government in Venezuela, “wants the last name Trump to be stained with blood for centuries.”

In my view, the move to deport some 600,000 Venezuelans currently enjoying Temporary Protected Status is calculated to destabilize the Maduro regime as much as it is to enforce immigration law and should be viewed as simply one leg of the campaign to force Maduro from office and return Venezuela to a working nation.

UPDATE

President Trump has made this announcement on Truth Social.

Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere. The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!!!!!!

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