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  Title	Here's Who Trump Has Really Killed in Those 'Drug Boat' Strikes
  ID	23706479
  External ID	667e0e673e94cb77767b27c907ea0448
  Author	Edith Olmsted
  Published Date	Nov. 6, 2025, 11 p.m.
  Summary	The identities of the strike victims are much more complicated than Donald Trump has indicated.
  Tags	None
  URL	https://newrepublic.com/post/202889/donald-trump-really-killed-drug-boat-strikes
  Sentiment	Negative: 0.44373    Neutral: 0.53369    Positive: 0.02258
  Relevance	0.00000

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  Content ID	31459319
  Key	bac1fc5b-c507-4543-a693-7ecb58e316d8
  Content	President Donald Trump's administration claims that its military strikes on foreign vessels that are allegedly smuggling drugs have targeted 'unlawful combatants' engaged in an 'armed conflict.' But the Associated Press reported Friday that this isn't entirely true. Since the beginning of September, the Pentagon has announced 17 military strikes against vessels around Latin America, summarily executing more than 66 alleged drug smugglers. The Trump administration has essentially declared war against foreign cartels it claims are'nonstate armed groups,' asserting that their transport of drugs constituted 'an armed attack against the United States.' But a handful of dead men identified by the AP weren't so-called 'narco-terrorists' or members of criminal gangs or cartels. And they were smuggling cocaine, not synthetic opioids responsible for killing tens of thousands of Americans every year. One man killed in the first strike was Luis 'Che' Martínez, a 60-year-old local crime boss who had previously been jailed for human trafficking charges. Although the Trump administration claimed that the 11 men killed were members of Tren de Aragua, Martinez's relatives told AP that they did not believe he was a member of that gang. Another man killed in a U.S. military strike on a vessel was Robert Sánchez, a 41-year-old fisherman and skilled boat pilot from a Venezuelan peninsula plagued by poverty. Despite the Trump administration's claim that it was preventing the imminent transit of deadly drugs to the United States, the coastal area in Venezuela where Sánchez lived was a popular transit hub for cocaine headed for Europe. Cocaine, and other drugs bound for the United States, are typically moved through the Pacific Ocean. Another man killed was Juan Carlos 'El Guaramero' Fuentes, who'd turned to smuggling after the public bus he operated broke down and the government failed to fix it. Another was Dushak Milovcic, a 24-year-old drop-out of Venezuela's National Guard Academy. Neither of them were gang members, either. The AP's latest findings are in line with previous disturbing admissions from the Pentagon, which told lawmakers that 'they do not need to positively identify individuals on the vessel to do the strikes,' and 'could not satisfy the evidentiary burden' required to detain or prosecute crew members. The Pentagon also admitted that the only drug targeted in the strike was cocaine, 'a facilitating drug of fentanyl.' The Trump administration has claimed the strikes are an effort to curb drug smuggling. The government is also making plans to possibly expand its campaign to dry land—and its list of potential targets reportedly includes Venezuelan military sites. Vice President JD Vance is blatantly attacking the Constitution's separation of powers after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to fully fund the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program . Speaking in the White House Thursday, Vance called the ruling 'absurd,' because 'you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of the Democrat government shutdown.' 'What we'd like to do is to have the Democrats open up the government, of course, then we can fund SNAP, and we can also do a lot of other good things for the American people,' Vance said . 'But in the midst of a shutdown, we can't have a federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation.' It's yet another attack on an independent judiciary from the White House, and came hours before the administration appealed the judge's ruling Friday, with Justice Department lawyers asking for a pause. U.S. District Judge John McConnell's decision 'has thrust the Judiciary into the ongoing shutdown negotiations and may well have the effect of extending the lapse in appropriations, exacerbating the problem that the court was misguidedly trying to mitigate,' DOJ lawyers argued. 'This unprecedented injunction makes a mockery of the separation of powers. Courts hold neither the power to appropriate nor the power to spend.' 'There is no lawful basis for an order that directs USDA to somehow find $4 billion in the metaphorical couch cushions,' the lawyers wrote. Meanwhile, as the Trump administration refuses to fund a food program for the destitute, they continue to bail out foreign countries and make record military purchases , even as the government shutdown costs the U.S. billions of dollars . But apparently, it's all the fault of Democrats and meddlesome judges. Representative Elise Stefanik announced her New York gubernatorial campaign early Friday, though she may not have let her team know. The Trump loyalist's website was still plastered in 'lorem ipsum' placeholder text by the time she shared the link to her X account. But eagle-eyed critics noticed that wasn't the only mistake on the half-baked project. The website was also riddled with basic grammatical errors, espousing classic American values such as 'family first trust,' 'will alternative,' and 'legacy planningegal issues.' In announcing her bid for the 2026 race, Stefanik slammed New York's current leader, Kathy Hochul, as the 'worst governor in America.' 'Under her failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery bills,' Stefanik alleged . 'When New Yorkers were looking for leadership from our Governor, she bent the knee to the raging Defund the Police, Tax Hiking Communist causing catastrophe for New York families,' she continued, referring to New York City's Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who received more than 50 percent of the citywide vote Tuesday, despite the White House's best efforts to derail his campaign. Yet Stefanik's apparent detestation of the democratic socialist didn't stop her from taking a page out of Mamdani's playbook. The top-ranking New York Republican very clearly peeled lessons from the 34-year-old's wildly popular platform, fixating her messaging on affordability—one of Mamdani's major policy points. 'I am running for Governor to make New York affordable and safe FOR ALL,' Stefanik wrote. 'FIRE HOCHUL. SAVE NEW YORK.' Hochul took the reins of New York in 2021 after ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo was forced out of Albany by two egregious scandals of his own making: allegations of sexual harassment from more than a dozen of his own staffers, and an enormous cover-up of Covid-19-related nursing home deaths. A year later, New Yorkers seemed to warm up to their unanticipated leader. Hochul won the 2022 election by more than 370,000 votes, or 7 percent of the electorate, against Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who now serves as Donald Trump's administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency. Hochul has not yet announced whether she plans to run for another term, but Stefanik would need an explosive campaign to win over Republican and Democratic voters to thwart the incumbent. Stefanik has drawn national attention in recent years, expediently ascending the rungs of the Republican Party since she went all in on the MAGA movement. She wasn't always in the president's pocket, however. When Trump first ran for president, Stefanik expressed that she believed his language and behavior toward women was 'offensive' and 'just wrong.' Comedian Ziwe Fumudoh's sit-down with disgraced New York City Mayor Eric Adams may have been the most ridiculous exit interview in modern history. The 20-minute conversation felt like one strange, long joke that only Ziwe was in on. The mayor flirted with his interviewer (more than 30 years his junior) several times, talked about hooking up with the Statue of Liberty, claimed that he had proof Gracie Mansion is haunted, ranted about saggy pants, and skirted around addressing his various federal indictments and scandals—which he could have gone to prison for if Trump's DOJ didn't drop his cases. Here are some of the other weirdest moments from the interview: 1. 'Not the bulge that others would talk about' 'When you on the train with that beautiful outfit you have on, and all of a sudden you see someone hanging out there and they have a bulge on they side—and not the bulge that others would talk about—then you wanna make sure they stop and they frisk,' Adams said, shooting his shot at Ziwe while simultaneously plugging NYPD stop and frisk policies that have long been racist and unconstitutional . 'That felt like a threat,' Ziwe said, referring to the mayor's innuendo. 'Well you may think he has a weapon,' Adams replied. 'What are you saying right now?' 'What are you feeling right now?' 2. 'The firmness of my body.' Ziwe asked Adams about his proclivity for night life, as he's been known to frequent clubs, bars, and hookah and cigar lounges during his tenure. 'Why do people think [at] 65 you should not be out? You know, when I get out of the shower and take a look at myself and my six-pack, and the firmness of my body, I'm living the 65 life,' Adams said. 3. Nepotism for his 'ex-shorty.' The mayor was also questioned about his appointment of ex-girlfriend Jasmine Ray . Adams dated Ray from around 2014 until he broke up with her in 2021, as she details in her recent book. But in 2022, Adams created a position for her—a $161,000 gig to be the director of his 'Office of Sports.' 'I must ask, did you appoint Jasmine Ray as the city's first director of sports, wellness, and recreation because she was your ex-shorty?' Ziwe asked. 'Because she was good at her job, and she did it well,' Adams replied. 'And so, if you met someone 10 years ago and you hung out with, and you decide 10 years later you wanted to bring them on because you know how good they are at their job? You should do so.… I'm pretty sure all of your boos you didn't abandon them merely because you had a relationship with them once.' Adams concluded his interview with a message to democratic socialist Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. 'This is New York. It's not Cuba. It's not China. It is the center of capitalism, not socialism. Can't take it backwards. We made too much success. Gotta move forward.' Watch the entire interview here . Immigration and Customs Enforcement is hoping to lure New York City police officers to join its ranks by suggesting their current employer doesn't really respect them. An advertisement ICE posted to social media Thursday attempted to lure law enforcement officers away from the city they've supposedly sworn to protect. 'NYPD OFFICERS: Join an agency that respects you, your family, and your commitment to serving in law enforcement,' the post read. It included a link to a recruitment page, claiming that the country had been 'invaded by criminals and predators.' The Trump administration's effort to poach from the NYPD's head count comes as the law enforcement agency has only recently stopped struggling with hiring and retention, after significantly reducing education and age requirements. Meanwhile, ICE has struggled with its own recruitment 'shit show,' as the agency flounders to achieve White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller's quest to hire 10,000 so-called 'Homeland Defenders' by January. Increased recruitment efforts have reportedly placed an immense strain on ICE officials, who have had to turn away more than 200 new recruits who were improperly vetted. This latest ad comes in the wake of Zohran Mamdani's stunning victory in New York City's mayoral election, meaning that the democratic socialist is set to inherit the NYPD's multibillion-dollar surveillance state apparatus. Mamdani has presented a new vision for public safety by planning to establish the Department of Community Safety , which will handle nonemergency 911 calls in the place of armed police officers, putting mental health, homelessness, and prevention outreach in the hands of an entirely separate agency. In the wake of Mamdani's victory, Donald Trump seems adamant that New York City should fall to ruin, and on Thursday he threatened to gut the city's federal funded infrastructure projects, including 'bridges, and tunnels, and all of the things that were being planned for New York.' But ICE operations would still continue there, he said. 'They have killers in New York, we want to get them out,' Trump said. But his administration's latest efforts to strip the ranks of the NYPD reveals the government is far more interested in deporting immigrants than addressing crime. South Carolina Representative Nancy Mace's explicit rant about the abuses of her ex-fiancé have come back to bite her. Patrick Bryant filed a defamation suit against the Lowcountry lawmaker Friday, noting in a social media statement that he would no longer 'stay quiet' regarding Mace's 'completely false accusations.' Mace, however, did not take the news well. 'What kind of guy sues his own rape victim and sues women he filmed without their knowledge, permission or consent for YEARS? Who does that?' Mace posted Friday morning. 'Can't wait for a court hearing on this!!! Put me in coach—I'm ready to testify, under oath—this guy should be rotting in a jail cell—not suing his victims!!! 'HOLD THE LINE,' she added. Mace put Bryant on full blast during a House Oversight Committee hearing in May, when she alleged that he was a 'predator' who had taken videos of her during the course of their relationship without her consent. (In a shocking turn of events, Mace showcased what she described as her 'naked silhouette' during the hearing.) The South Carolinian also mentioned that in 2023, she discovered a trove of hidden camera nude images of women that she argued were taken by Bryant, similarly without those women's consent. She then posted images of the other women during the hearing, though she said she had gotten permission to do so. It was all in an effort to advance two pieces of legislation that she had introduced months prior, centered on further prohibiting 'video voyeurism' and expanding a 'civil right of action for victims.' But people close to Mace weren't so sure that her vulnerability was completely altruistic. In an April deposition tied to a Charleston County civil case, Mace's former political adviser Wesley Donehue claimed that the salacious, dredged-up material was all part of a bogus extortion attempt by Mace to 'gain 100 percent ownership' of homes the former couple had in Washington and South Carolina's Isle of Palms. President Trump seems to love corrupt politicians. On Thursday evening, the president pardoned Glen Casada, the former Tennessee state House speaker, as well as one of his aides, of corruption charges, claiming that the Biden administration 'over-prosecuted' the two of them. Casada and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren were sentenced in September for running a scheme to get lawmakers to use their taxpayer-funded mail business. Prosecutors said that Cothren launched Phoenix Solutions with the support of his boss and another Tennessee state representative, Robin Smith, to set up a mailer program for legislators. The company had a fictional 'Matthew Phoenix' listed as its head, and Casada and Smith received $52,000 in taxpayer money from the company's activities. The company wasn't Casada's only misdeed, either: He resigned in 2019 due to many scandals, including sending sexually explicit text messages about women to Cothren, sending racist text messages, and using cocaine inside a legislative office building. It's yet another controversial presidential pardon on Trump's already long list. In this case, it's a fellow Republican. Since being sworn in, Trump has pardoned the January 6 rioters who sought to overturn the 2020 election on his behalf, a crypto billionaire who cut a deal with the Trumps, a corrupt electric car magnate , and numerous others. Trump even commuted the sentence given to notorious liar and former Representative George Santos, convicted on multiple counts of fraud and corruption. It seems that to the president, crimes don't matter if you're an ally or are useful to him. It's not surprising, considering Trump's own numerous corrupt activities . MAGA Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is still one of the few GOP members to rebuke President Trump and his lies in any meaningful way. Taylor Greene spoke freely in an interview with CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Thursday night. 'The president says there's virtually no inflation, and that grocery prices are going down,' Collins asked the Georgia representative. 'Do you agree with him on that?' 'No, I go to the grocery store myself. Grocery prices remain high. Energy prices are high. My electricity bills are higher here in Washington, D.C., at my apartment, and they're also higher at my house in Rome, Georgia, higher than they were a year ago,' MTG said. 'Affordability is a problem, and I'm a mom. My kids are 22, 26, and 28. That's the generation I worry about the most, and they're having a very hard time.' One of the most unhinged people in all of Congress comes across as genuine, while the president—on the same evening—told Americans that he wanted to stop hearing about their affordability issue. While Trump tells bold-faced lies about the state of the economy, MTG is raising concerns about a future that her kids and their kids can afford. 'You're not gonna convince [Americans] to go to the polls and vote by bailing out Argentina. And you're not gonna convince them to go to the polls and vote by continuing to fund foreign wars and foreign countries and foreign causes,' Taylor Greene continued. 'You'e gonna get them to go to the polls and vote when you show up to work and actually fix the problems that they face every single day.' Donald Trump badly botched the pronunciation of Kazakhstan, a decades-long U.S. ally, while seated right next to the country's president during a White House dinner with Central Asian leaders Thursday evening. Like some unaired scene out of Sacha Baron Cohen's 2006 flick Borat, Trump slipped that ' Ka-ZACK-a-stan ' had joined the Abraham Accords, adding a syllable and stressing the wrong one in the country's name while announcing supposedly new diplomatic ties between Kazakhstan (which is actually pronounced Kahz-uck-stan) and Israel. 'This evening, I'm also delighted to report that Ka-ZACK-a-stan has officially agreed, and that's official now, as of about 15 minutes ago. A tremendous country with a tremendous leader, has officially joined the Abraham Accords,' Trump said , mere feet away from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. 'And I just want to thank you, Mr. President. It's a great honor. It's a tremendous honor to have you. Really great.' The pronunciation was, in part, a win for the White House. In September, Trump managed to mispronounce the 'Abraham' in Abraham Accords, insisting during a White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Jews—or 'the real people'—pronounce it as 'Abraaaham.' The misstep was so awkward that Netanyahu jumped to correct him, clarifying that the name is actually pronounced in Hebrew as 'Avraham.' Just how much Kazakhstan's new status will materially change its relationship with Israel is unclear, however, since the countries have had 'full ties' since 1992, including shared embassies in their respective capitals, according to The Times of Israel . It does, however, give Trump some new material to prattle about. Trump created the series of agreements at the end of his first term as a method to thwart Iran's nuclear program. The Abraham Accords have since been signed by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan, and Morocco. The Atlantic Council, an American think tank focused on international affairs, said in a statement that Kazakhstan's inclusion on the Abraham Accords was 'no great breakthrough' but rather a 'failed attempt' to revive the Abraham Accords 'brand.' 'It is clear that the Trump administration is trying to kill two birds with one stone with this statement—to prove that the Abraham Accords 'brand' is still alive (especially in preparation for the visit of the Saudi crown prince to Washington) and to poke a finger in the eye of Chinese ambitions in the Eurasian space,' argued Danny Citrinowicz , a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council with 25 years of experience with Israel Defense Intelligence. 'But the truth is that without significant progress on the political track between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, Saudi Arabia will not join the Abraham Accords, regardless of the accession of other countries,' Citrinowicz continued. 'And without Saudi Arabia, it is very unlikely that additional Muslim countries will join these agreements.' Tokayev appeared unbothered by the massive flub. Making direct eye contact with Trump, the Kazakhstani leader lathered praise on the U.S. president, claiming he was a 'statesman sent by heaven,' while reiterating the administration's propaganda that Trump had solved eight wars (some of which never even happened). If President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance really want to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, why are they both kicking and screaming at a federal judge's latest order to do just that? The Department of Justice rushed Thursday evening to appeal a ruling that would require the Trump administration to fully fund SNAP benefits for November amid the government shutdown. Meanwhile, Trump and Vance complained about the order to reporters in the East Room at the White House. The vice president seemed particularly disturbed by the notion that a federal judge could force the Trump administration's hand. 'It's an absurd ruling because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of a Democrat government shutdown,' Vance said . 'Which, what we'd like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government, and, of course, then we can fund SNAP and we could also do a lot of other good things for the American people. But in the midst of a shutdown, we can't have the federal court telling the president how he has to triage the situation. 'We're trying to keep as much turned on, we're trying to keep as much going as possible,' Vance said. 'The president and the entire administration are working on that, but we're not going to do it under the orders of a federal judge.' Trump also weighed in with a confusing answer about the country needing to remain 'very liquid.' 'We can't give everything away based on a number,' Trump said, ostensibly talking about the number of SNAP recipients (42 million), though what number he was referring to was unclear. 'Biden went totally crazy, gave it to anybody that would ask. Gave it to people that were able-bodied, had no problem. Anybody who would ask would get the number,' Trump said. It sounds like Trump no longer thinks it would be an 'honor' to fund SNAP should a court order him to do so, as he claimed on Truth Social less than a week ago. It was Trump's own blatant unwillingness to fund SNAP that got him into this situation in the first place. In issuing his new, stricter ruling Thursday evening, U.S. District Chief Judge John J. McConnell Jr. cited Trump's rageful Truth Social Post claiming that benefits 'will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government' as evidence of the president's 'intent to defy' a previous order that required him to pay for only some benefits.
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  Publisher Name	New Republic (#11733)
  Publisher URL	newrepublic.com
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  Data Source Name	NewsCatcher (#303)
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