Two months ago, President Trump began his push to change the Department of Defense title to the Department of War.
Mr. Trump said in a speech that to restore pride in the U.S. military, he is changing the department name back to what it was in 1789. That makes sense because in 1789, the U.S. was like today in many ways: the economy was suffering, there was widespread lack of cash, economic hardship and high taxes led to uprisings, a social hierarchy existed, there was political instability, and tariffs raised prices on essential goods, which sparked colonial opposition.
With a macho name like Department of War, the administration perhaps felt obligated to start a war to justify it. Enter Venezuela and Mr. Trump’s version of the war on drugs.
As of November 15, 22 suspected drug boats from Venezuela have been blown up, killing at least 83 people. The keyword here is “suspected” since the Trump administration has produced zero evidence to support its claims.
Here is Mr. Trump’s explanations as to what’s going on: “We’ve taken a very hard stand on drugs … the water drugs — the drugs that come in through water they’re not coming — there are no boats anymore, frankly there are no fishing boats, there’s no boats out there period,” Mr. Trump told Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Oct. 7.
In an Oct. 15 press conference, Mr. Trump stated, “Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives, so every time you see a boat and you feel badly, you say, ‘Wow, that’s rough ’ It is rough, but if you lose three people and save 25,000 people.”
Let’s see, 22 boats times 25,000 each is 550,000 saved lives!
Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration since data from the CDC states that approximately 76,516 U.S. lives were lost to drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in April 2025.
Also, during the Oct. 15 press conference, Mr. Trump said the boats were carrying fentanyl. “And you can see it, the boats get hit, and you see that fentanyl all over the ocean. It’s like floating in bags. It’s all over the place,” Mr. Trump said.
However, no bags of drugs are visible in aerial videos of some of the boat strikes he has shown on Truth Social.
Besides, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, most of the fentanyl, chemicals, and equipment used to make it are coming in from Mexico or China. About 80% of fentanyl is seized in the southwest border region.
Most of the illicit drugs and the chemicals used to make them are coming across U.S. borders in passenger or commercial vehicles. And nearly half of the equipment used to make fentanyl pills is being sent by mail from China.
These are all well-known facts which Commander-in-Chief Trump and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth have somehow missed. And notice, no mention of motorboats.
Experts on the area explain that poor Venezuelans are being hired or forced to transport drugs produced in Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and other countries, but not in Venezuela. And the primary “water drug” is cocaine.
A US Drug Enforcement Administration report from 2025 says 84% of the cocaine seized in the US comes from Colombia and mentioned other countries, but not Venezuela in its cocaine section.
Part of the problem is that demand for cocaine in the U.S. is high, and supplies have never been so robust, according to authorities and experts. A sign of that trend is Cocaine prices have been hovering at historical lows for more than a decade.
Obviously, the drug lords’ economy is doing much better than ours. But it’s not the drug kingpins who are being blown up.
The Associated Press recently visited a region in Venezuela from which some of the suspected boats have departed and identified four men who were killed in the strikes. In dozens of interviews, residents of the region and relatives said the dead men were mostly laborers or fishermen desperate for money.
Law enforcement officials and experts echoed those findings, saying the smugglers captured by the Coast Guard are hired for little money to ferry drugs.
Moreover, experts point out that cartels are sophisticated organizations. There is little doubt that drug-trafficking organizations use decoy boats to divert authorities from actual, high-value shipments, according to Google Gemini.
Since Mr. Trump’s War Department destroys the boats, there is no way to verify their cargo, which means that some of the targeted vessels could have been empty, carrying only small amounts of drugs, or just bags of flour, effectively acting as decoys.
Also, U.S. military intelligence can be wrong as the cartels take steps to mislead it using a secret code. In other words, a significant number of destroyed boats’ crews could consist of civilians.
If true, Mr. Trump’s Department of War could be guilty of violating some key principles of war crimes: intentional attacks on civilians are prohibited; take all precautions to avoid harm to civilians; avoid excessive civilian harm if no direct military advantage anticipated.
Mr. Trump can call it the Department of War if he wants, but the Department of War (Crimes) may prove more accurate.
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