President Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the US has “knocked off” a total of three boats in the Caribbean as the US military campaign near Venezuela continues.
The president previously announced the bombing of two boats near Venezuela that he claimed were carrying drugs, without providing evidence, and released footage of the strikes. “We knocked off actually three boats, not two, but you saw two,” Trump said.
He made the comments when asked what message he wanted to send to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. “Stop sending Tren de Aragua into the United States, stop sending drugs into the United States,” he said.
The Trump administration has claimed that Maduro controls the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TDA), but that contradicts a declassified US intelligence assessment. “The Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” a memo from the Office of the Director of Intelligence, dated April 7, 2025, reads.
The Trump administration launched the campaign against Venezuela despite the country’s willingness to cooperate on prisoner swaps and deportations. Maduro said on Monday that communications with the US have been “thrown away,” though he said the two countries are still in contact to facilitate the return of Venezuelans from the US.
“The communications with the government of the U.S. have been thrown away, they have been thrown away by them with their threats of bombs, death, and blackmail,” Maduro said.
The Venezuelan leader also said that the US policy amounted to “aggression” against Venezuela. Other Venezuelan officials have suggested that the US may be trying to provoke a response from Venezuela to justify another military escalation. Media reports have said that the US is considering launching strikes against alleged cartel targets inside Venezuela, and Trump has not ruled out the possibility.
While Trump and other US officials claim the military action and pressure on Venezuela’s government is about drug trafficking and a response to overdose deaths in the US, fentanyl doesn’t come from or through Venezuela, and the majority of the cocaine that is transported to the US comes through the Pacific, not the Caribbean.
Democrats in Congress have slammed the US military campaign in Venezuela, with Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) calling the strikes “lawless killings” and warning that it could lead to a full-blown war. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has also been very critical of the military action, pointing to the fact that even the worst criminals get trials in the US.
