Former president Donald Trump faced heavy criticism after defending a recent U.S. military strike in the Caribbean. The attack targeted a boat that had left Venezuela, and Trump claimed it was carrying drugs.
He said 11 people on board were killed. But Venezuela’s interior minister, Diosdado Cabello, pushed back, calling the strike “murder. He insisted the victims were fishermen and not drug traffickers, accusing the U.S. of wrongly attacking a tuna boat.
When asked whether he worried the incident could cause further conflict with Venezuela, Trump dismissed concerns. He said the real crime was the drugs supposedly on the boat.
Then he added something that made many people stop and laugh: he claimed that “300 million people died last year from drugs.” Since the U.S. population is around 340 million, the statement made no sense.
Social media quickly erupted with jokes and disbelief. Critics pointed out that, according to official data, about 75,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses last year not hundreds of millions.
Commentators mocked Trump’s exaggeration, with some sarcastically suggesting the entire country had apparently “died” already. Others joked that maybe even more than the U.S. population had been wiped out.
Despite the pushback, Trump repeated his claim that Venezuela is sending gang members and drug traffickers into the U.S., saying it would not be tolerated.
He also argued that there are now fewer boats off Venezuela’s coast because of the stronger U.S. Navy presence. When reporters asked if more strikes were coming, he said, “We’ll see what happens,” but did not give details.
At the same time, reports surfaced that contradicted Trump’s defense. A U.S. official told ABC News that Coast Guard personnel actually found no drugs on the boat.
The New York Times reported that the vessel might have been turning back toward shore before the strike occurred.
The incident and Trump’s comments have sparked outrage, ridicule, and renewed debate about U.S. actions in the region, leaving many questioning whether the strike was justified and why Trump made such an extreme and inaccurate claim about drug deaths.
