Trump’s Drug Boat Video Leaves Out Key Details

President Donald Trump claimed that the United States military acted out of “self-defense” against an “imminent threat” last week by striking a vessel it claimed was carrying drugs. So why was the boat turning around?

The New York Times spoke Wednesday with officials briefed on the strike who said that the administration’s public statements, and a less than 30-second video of the boat exploding, only gave an abridged version of the deadly incident. 

Officials said that the boat began to turn around, likely because it had spotted the military aircraft above. The video Trump shared also does not show that the vessel was struck multiple times after it was disabled, before it eventually sank.  

Retired top military lawyers argued that these revelations severely undermine the administration’s defense of its extrajudicial attack, that the military acted in “self-defense.” 

“If someone is retreating, where’s the ‘imminent threat’ then?” Rear Admiral Donald Guter, a retired top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2000 to 2002, told the Times. “Where’s the ‘self-defense’? They are gone if they ever existed—which I don’t think they did.”

“I would be interested if they could come up for any legal basis for what they did,” said Rear Admiral James E. McPherson, who served as the top judge advocate general for the Navy from 2004 to 2006 and later held prominent civilian military roles in the Trump administration. “If, in fact, you can fashion a legal argument that says these people were getting ready to attack the U.S. through the introduction of cocaine or whatever, if they turned back, then that threat has gone away.”

A White House spokesperson did not directly respond to questions about the boat’s maneuvers, and repeated the line that Trump had “acted in line with the laws of armed conflict to protect our country” from “evil narco terrorists trying to poison our homeland.”

Senator Rand Paul revealed to The Intercept Tuesday that the deadly strike had been the work of drones, and a blatant violation of the rules of engagement. 

“The recent drone attack on a small speedboat over 2,000 miles from our shore without identification of the occupants or the content of the boat is in no way part of a declared war and defies our longstanding Coast Guard rules of engagement which include: warnings to halt, non-lethal force to capture, and ultimately lethal force in self-defense or in cases of resistance,” Paul said. 

Missing details continue to cast doubt on the Trump administration’s narrative. Some officials at the Department of Defense privately expressed concerns that the government had changed details of its story about the deadly strike, which is especially worrying considering that the government has offered no evidence to support its claim that the individuals on the boat were in fact drug traffickers, or that they were en route to the United States.

We know almost nothing about the shooter who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk—yet President Donald Trump delivered an address Wednesday evening blaming the “radical left” and their rhetoric for political violence.

According to the president, Wednesday’s shooting, which was swiftly condemned by prominent Democrats, was the result of the left “demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year in the most hateful and despicable way possible.”

Trump went on: “For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.”

The president promised to hunt down those he deems responsible for the violence on Wednesday and other violent acts, “including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”

Trump continued, citing examples of “radical left political violence.” He mentioned the attempt on his life in July 2024, the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, attacks on ICE agents, and the 2017 mass shooting at a congressional baseball game.

He notably failed to mention acts of political violence perpetrated by right wingers against the left—e.g., the June shootings of two Minnesota Democratic lawmakers and their spouses, which killed State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband; the 2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, in an attempted kidnapping of Nancy Pelosi (which Trump mocked); the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, stoked by Trump; and the thwarted kidnapping of Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic governor of Michigan.

Despite his condemnation of “demonizing” rhetoric, Trump has done more than perhaps any other singular figure to stoke partisan tensions.

In 2024, Trump repeatedly called Kamala Harris a “fascist.” In May 2024, he said Biden had turned America into “a fascist state.” In November 2023, he vowed to “root out the Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” And back in 2020, he raised the specter of “left-wing fascism” gripping the Democratic Party, saying, “Fascists! They are fascists. Some of them, not all of them. But some of them.”

As The New York Times observed in September 2024, he has also “long favored the language of violence in his political discourse.”

In short, the president is no stranger to vilifying those with whom he disagrees, giving his words Wednesday a hollow ring.

On Wednesday, a Democratic representative brought up multiple ways in which her congressional colleagues received the “gender-affirming care” they wanted to ban. It made MAGA Representative Nancy Mace so upset she started screaming.

Democrats and Republicans were arguing in Congress about amendments to the annual defense bill. Mace had added multiple anti-transgender amendments, including one that specifically removed gender-affirming care from the U.S. military’s health care coverage.

Mace has a long history of bigoted anti-trans rhetoric and legislation, and California Democratic Representative Sara Jacobs used her time on the floor to rebuke her, calling Mace out for her blatant hypocrisy without mentioning the representative by name.

“I would just like to point out that I think it’s very interesting that my colleague from South Carolina is so obsessed with the issue of trans people, using horrible slurs about them, when many people in this body have received gender-affirming care,” Jacobs said. “Filler is gender-affirming care. Boob jobs is gender-affirming care. Botox is gender-affirming care. Lots of my colleagues have received gender-affirming care. And let me be clear, I think everyone should have access to the gender-affirming care that they need, and I think that we should respect everybody in this country.”

In response, Mace started hollering.

“Ridiculous,” the representative from South Carolina said. “You are absolutely ridiculous. What the hell is your problem? You are disgusting. You are an insult.”

Mace may have reacted so strongly because she’s been accused of getting nearly every kind of procedure mentioned by Jacobs. Back in November, Mace’s former communications director, Natalie Johnson, shared a text from Mace in which the congresswoman complained about not wanting to see the “trans mob” in her bathroom. “I don’t want to see your botched, cheap hooker-inspired boob job on my television,” Johnson hit back in a now-deleted post, alluding to the oft-spread rumors about Mace’s cosmetic work. “Can we introduce a bill to bar that?”

Mace took the time to call out Jacobs on X after losing control in the House.

“To @RepSaraJacobs, I talk about women’s safety and your response is commentary about my body on the House floor,” Mace wrote. “If you knew anything about survivors you would know some women change their bodies because of the trauma of sexual violence. They live with the consequences for a lifetime. PS—I have a good surgeon if you ever want to get your nose done.”

Jacobs responded to Mace’s display of hate with pity.

“I feel sad for you. Stop lashing out against trans kids and pretending it’s to ‘protect women,’” she replied. “Hope you get the help you need.”

In the immediate wake of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk Wednesday at Utah Valley University, little to nothing is known about the suspect, and prominent Democrats were quick to condemn the violence.

And yet many on the far right have taken to social media to claim that the shooting—and an increase in political violence in general—was incited by the political left and the Democratic Party.

“The Left is the party of murder,” wrote Elon Musk on his social media platform, X.

“It’s a real treat to see all these Liberals condemn political violence now,” posted Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. “You called us Hitler. You called us Nazis. You called us Racists. You have blood on your hands.”

“It’s time for the Trump administration to shut down, defund, & prosecute every single Leftist organization,” tweeted far-right activist Laura Loomer. “If Charlie Kirk dies from his injuries, his life cannot be in vain. We must shut these lunatic leftists down. Once and for all.”

“The left are evil murdering scum who kill people or let others kill people,” tweeted far-right provocateur Andrew Tate. “THEY MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.”

Conservative social media personality Isabella Maria DeLuca similarly wrote, “We don’t have a gun problem. We have a Democrat problem.”

James Woods, an actor and Trump supporter, posted a photo of Kirk with the caption: “It’s not gun violence. It’s Democrat violence.”

Right-wing podcast host Joey Mannarino called for the Democratic Party to be “classified as a domestic terror organization and their members & leaders treated accordingly.”

“Democrats are the party of death and destruction,” wrote the conservative political commentary duo the Hodgetwins.

“The left has declared LITERAL WAR on us. DEMOCRATS AND THEIR VlOLENT RHETORIC OWN THIS!” wrote pro-Trump journalist Nick Sortor, sharing a video of a man being detained, who Sortor claimed was the shooter—though it has since been reported that a suspect is not yet in custody.

Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a college event in Utah Wednesday.

The 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder was speaking at Utah Valley University as part of his American Comeback Tour when he was struck in the neck by a single bullet. Videos taken by attendees at the event show Kirk bleeding profusely out of the side of his neck after the shot rang out.

Kirk, a college dropout, had become one of the most prominent conservative activists in the country, attracting droves of young people to the Republican cause by meeting and debating them on college campuses across the nation. He was one of the few conservative personalities to maintain regular contact with Donald Trump, and was credited with playing a critical role in reelecting Trump in 2024.

He was a staunch activist against abortion, transgender care, and, notably, gun control.

Trump wrote Kirk a brief obituary on Truth Social Wednesday, announcing that he had not survived the attack.

“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead,” Trump wrote. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!”

The president also ordered that flags on government buildings be lowered to half staff until Sunday at 6:00 p.m. to honor Kirk, whom he described as a “great American patriot.”

Andrew Kolvet, Kirk’s spokesman, also confirmed Kirk’s death. Kirk is survived by his wife Erika Frantzve and his two children.

Moments before he was killed, Kirk was debating the issue of gun violence in America with an audience member on the campus green.

“Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” the attendee asked.

“Counting or not counting gang violence?” Kirk responded, seconds before he was struck.

The conservative firebrand became well-known for his fervent and often extreme arguments against gun regulation. In 2023, Kirk said he believed it was “worth it” for people to die from gun violence so long as the current iteration of Americans’ Second Amendment rights remained untouched.

“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk said at the time. “That is a prudent deal. It is rational. Nobody talks like this. They live in a complete alternate universe.”

Kirk’s 2023 comments came a week after three children and three adults were killed at Christian Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.

This story has been updated.