What did Donald Trump do today?
He told a ridiculous lie about how he'd "saved" Americans from a year's worth of overdose deaths in a few weeks.
Trump held yet another Cabinet meeting. As is always the case with Trump, the majority of the multi-hour meeting consisted of Cabinet secretaries lavishing praise on him. Trump also spoke, telling outright lies on subjects ranging from vaccination to the fictitious "wars" he's ended. (Here's one spot-check of the more deceptive or mathematically impossible things Trump said today.)
Notably, Trump repeated his claim that his destruction of four Venezuelan ships, supposedly carrying drugs, have saved American lives. "Every single boat that you see getting taken out kills 25,000 Americans, think of that." This is, to be kind, preposterous. About 82,000 Americans died of overdoses last year—fewer than Trump claims to have already prevented in the last few weeks—and many of those were from abuse of prescription medications.
The vast majority of nonprescription narcotics (mostly heroin) used by Americans come from Mexico. Trump has claimed that he can somehow see "bags of fentanyl" in the wreckage of the boats he's ordered destroyed, but fentanyl—an extremely concentrated prescription drug sometimes cut into other drugs—is overwhelmingly smuggled in by American citizens at border crossings.
What makes Trump's lie about the threat posed by the ships he's had destroyed particularly egregious is that he has presented no evidence that any of them were involved in the drug trade—and there is mounting evidence to the contrary. Video from the first attack showed there were a large number of people on board the relatively small boat as it headed to Trinidad, the opposite of what would be expected for a drug smuggling operation.
Yesterday, the president of Colombia claimed that the most recent boat destroyed was Colombian, and had Colombian citizens aboard. President Gustavo Petro didn't offer any evidence—but then neither has Trump. Essentially everything Trump or other administration officials have said, other than the ridiculous claim about saving lives, has been jokes about killing Venezuelan fishermen.
Trump's budget bill slashed $26 billion from programs to treat drug addiction and prevent overdoses, on top of $11 billion in grants he froze earlier this year.
Why does this matter?
- Trump probably believes what he is saying here, which is its own kind of problem.
- Military strikes that aren't or can't be justified are just extrajudicial murder.
- Presidents who care about Americans dying of drug overdoses generally try to do something about drug overdoses.