Trump reveals U.S. ‘shot out a drug boat’ carrying narcotics from Venezuela

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. had conducted a strike against a vessel involved in the drug trade that was coming out of Venezuela. 

‘You’ll see that we just, over the last few minutes literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat,’ Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office Tuesday afternoon. 

The president said he had just been briefed on the matter by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Daniel ‘Razin’ Caine.  

‘We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time, and we just – these came out of Venezuela. And coming out very heavily from Venezuela, a lot of things are coming out of Venezuela, so we took it out,’ Trump added. 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio chimed in directly afterward. 

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

Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro has been fuming over the U.S.’s increased military presence in the region. 

Maduro, who the U.S. does not recognize as the legitimate president of the country after an election last year, threatened to ‘declare a republic in arms’ if attacked by American forces. 

‘In the face of this maximum military pressure, we have declared maximum preparedness for the defense of Venezuela,’ Maduro also said. 

The Pentagon has deployed at least seven warships to the southern Caribbean.

Maduro characterized the escalation as ‘an extravagant, unjustifiable, immoral and absolutely criminal and bloody threat.’ 

Last month, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maduro, saying he uses ‘foreign terrorist organizations’ to ‘bring deadly drugs and violence into our country.’ 

In the announcement, she said the Drug Enforcement Administration seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates and 7 tons of cocaine linked to the Venezuelan dictator personally. 

Trump campaigned on eradicating the drug trade.

Since taking office, the president has surged resources to the southern border and threatened China with tariffs over fentanyl trafficking.