Jumbled accounts of a U.S. military strike on a Venezuelan boat have set off clashes in Washington and raised new questions about the Trump administration’s use of force. On Tuesday, Sept. 2, President Donald Trump posted a video on Truth Social showing a fast boat in the Caribbean erupting after a U.S. strike.
He said 11 members of the Tren de Aragua gang were killed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the craft as operated by a designated narco-terrorist group.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-PA, said the attack was conducted by a drone and denounced it as unlawful, according to The Intercept. He argued it happened “over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat,” and said it ran counter to Coast Guard practice that calls for warnings and non-lethal steps before deadly force.
How officials defended the strike
Trump said the operation was aimed at stopping drugs bound for the United States. Vice President JD Vance wrote on X, “Killing cartel members who poison our fellow citizens is the highest and best use of our military.”
Rubio said, “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again.”
Some Republicans backed the action. Sen. Jim Risch, R-WI, said he was “extremely confident” the target was a narco-terrorist group, while Sen. Josh Hawley, R-AR, argued the president acted under Article II commander-in-chief authority.
Rand responded to Vance’s comments, saying “What a despicable and thoughtless sentiment it is to glorify killing someone without a trial.”
Why the operation is drawing scrutiny
Democrats and some Republicans pressed for the legal justification of the strike. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said there is a lawful way to stop drug shipments but questioned whether this mission met that standard. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called for a full briefing and said Congress should consider responses if the president exceeded his authority. Paul criticized Vance’s rhetoric as glorifying killings without trial.
Legal specialists also challenged the action. Annie Shiel of the Center for Civilians in Conflict called it an “extrajudicial execution.” Former State Department lawyer Brian Finucane told The Intercept, absent an armed-conflict rationale and a lawful target, the strike amounted to “flat-out murder.”
Venezuela’s reaction and regional backdrop
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro ordered 25,000 troops to bolster coastal defenses. Vice President Delcy Rodríguez rejected claims that Venezuela drives the global drug trade, citing U.N. and U.S. DEA reporting. The dispute comes amid expanded U.S. military activity in the Caribbean, including 10 F-35 fighter jets repositioned to Puerto Rico and multiple Navy warships operating in the region.
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