Chris Whipple writes:

During my first visit with Wiles at the White House in November, Trump’s revenge tour against his domestic enemies was in full swing. So was his lethal campaign against Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, who, Trump was convinced, headed a powerful drug cartel. Over lunch, Wiles told me about Trump’s Venezuela strategy: “He wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle. And people way smarter than me on that say that he will.” (Wiles’s statement appears to contradict the administration’s official stance that blowing up boats is about drug interdiction, not regime change.)

I’d already pressed Wiles on Trump’s practice of blowing boats out of the water. The casualties almost certainly include unsuspecting fishermen. In 2016, Trump had famously mused that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any supporters. Now he seemed to be testing that idea on the global stage. When a critic on X denounced these killings as “war crimes,” Vance posted: “I don’t give a shit what you call it.” Pressed at an October press conference on why he didn’t just ask Congress for a declaration of war, Trump swatted the question away: “I think we’re just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. Okay?” I asked Wiles: “What do you say to people who ask, doesn’t anybody in this administration have a heart?”

Wiles didn’t mince words: “The president believes in harsh penalties for drug dealers, as he’s said many, many times…. These are not fishing boats, as some would like to allege.” The boats, she argued, carried drugs; eliminating them saves lives. “The president says 25,000. I don’t know what the number is. But he views those as lives saved, not people killed.”

As of this article’s publication, at least 87 people had been killed in US strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The Washington Post reported that Hegseth had directed the US military to “kill everybody” in a strike on a boat; this was followed by a second strike that killed two survivors—a possible war crime. Hegseth said an admiral was responsible for the second strike. Congressional Democrats and even some Republicans were talking about calling hearings to investigate the matter.

“Drug smuggling,” I pointed out to Wiles, “is not a death penalty offense, even if the president wishes it were.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not saying that it is. I’m saying that this is a war on drugs. [It’s] unlike another one that we’ve seen. But that’s what this is.”

“Obviously it’s a war declared only by the president and without any congressional approval,” I said.

“Don’t need it yet,” Wiles replied.

“We’re very sure we know who we’re blowing up,” she’d told me during lunch in November. “One of the great untold stories of the US government is the talents of the CIA. And there may be an interest in going inside territorial waters, which we have permission [to do] because they’re skirting the coastline to avoid getting [caught].” But Wiles conceded that attacking targets on Venezuela’s mainland would force Trump to get congressional approval. “If he were to authorize some activity on land, then it’s war, then [we’d need] Congress. But Marco and JD, to some extent, are up on the Hill every day, briefing.”

In October I asked Rubio what legal authority the administration had to conduct its lethal strikes. “Obviously, that’s a DOD [Department of Defense] operation,” he replied. “So I’m not in any way disavowing it. I agree with it 100 percent. I think we’re on very strong, firm footing, but I don’t want to be giving legal answers on behalf of the White House or the Department of War.” The secretary of state was unequivocal about the targets of the US strikes. “These are not alleged drug dealers,” he said. “These are drug dealers. Where are the YouTube videos of the family saying my poor innocent fisherman son, you know, was killed?” [Continue reading…]

Donald Trump, October 15: “Every boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives. 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.”

March 2025: “The Department of State, in consultation with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other relevant agencies, has identified Mexico as the only significant source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues significantly affecting the United States during the preceding calendar year.”