Trump Calls US Strikes on Venezuelan Boats “An Act of Kindness”

Speaking at the US Navy’s 250th anniversary ceremony in Norfolk, Virginia, Trump said the operations, which destroyed at least four boats in international waters since September, targeted narco-trafficking routes that he claimed were responsible for thousands of American deaths.

“It’s a pretty tough thing we’ve been doing, but you have to think of it this way. Every one of those boats is responsible for the death of 25,000 American people and the destruction of families,” Trump said. “So when you think of it that way, what we are doing is actually an act of kindness”.

Trump also praised the Navy for disrupting key maritime routes used to traffic fentanyl and other drugs into the US, noting that “nobody wants to go into the water anymore”.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rejected the allegations, insisting that his government has “eliminated all major trafficking networks and vanquished prominent gangs,” and accused Washington of using the drug war as a pretext to destabilize his administration and seize the country’s natural resources.