RWM_BoatStrikes

Andrea Austria / Media Matters

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Fox praised and validated Trump's legally questionable boat strikes in the Caribbean

Some at the network have been pressing for further US intervention – even regime change in Venezuela

Written by Jack Winstanley & Emma Mae Weber

Published

Fox News has celebrated the Trump administration's lethal strikes against supposed drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, despite concerns from legal experts over the strikes’ legality and bipartisan warnings from congressional members that they have seen no evidence to support the administration's claims that the strikes are targeting drug traffickers.

Along with championing the strikes — many of which have targeted boats coming from Venezuela — as “pretty spectacular” and a “great move” and praising the administration’s “aggressive” approach, some Fox figures and guests have gone so far as to suggest they would support regime change in Venezuela, claiming that the Maduro government is “part of the cartel.”

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  • Trump’s attacks on boats in the Caribbean draw legal questions from experts and legislators

    • The Trump administration has conducted numerous strikes in the Caribbean, attacking at least 13 boats and killing at least 51 people, claiming they are targeting the drug trade. President Donald Trump said of the strikes, many of which targeted Venezuelan boats, “It is violent and it is very — it’s amazing, the weaponry.” He has also hinted at further escalation, saying, “The land is going to be next.” Trump additionally authorized covert CIA action in the region, while the buildup of U.S. military assets in the region grows. [The Guardian, 10/28/25; AP News, 10/24/25; YouTube, 10/23/25; Twitter/X, 10/23/25; The New York Times, 10/15/25, 10/8/25]
    • Numerous legal experts say the killings are illegal. As The New York Times writes, “A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal. … The administration insists that the killings are lawful, invoking legal terms like ‘self-defense’ and ‘armed conflict.’ But it has offered no legal argument explaining how to bridge the conceptual gap between drug trafficking and associated crimes, as serious as they are, and the kind of armed attack to which those terms can legitimately apply.” NPR noted that the Trump administration “has designated several South and Central American drug cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations, but Congress has not authorized the use of force against them” and quoted a former State Department legal adviser, who said, “Outside of armed conflict, there is a word for the premeditated killing of people, and that word is 'murder.'" He added, “And just because the administration puts together this fig leaf of a legal justification does not legitimize these premeditated killings in the Caribbean.” [The New York Times, 10/24/25; NPR, 10/24/25]
    • Trump has repeatedly claimed that the strikes are saving thousands of Americans from drug overdoses, but there’s no evidence to support the claim. According to Trump, “Every boat that we knock out we save 25,000 American lives.” Trump has used this figure multiple times to defend the strikes, but the administration has not provided evidence showing drugs were destroyed during the attacks. Additionally, as PolitiFact notes, drug experts have said it is difficult to calculate how many lives are saved as a result of drug interception efforts but that Trump’s claim is “mathematically dubious.” “For Trump’s statement to be accurate, the drugs on five boats would have been responsible for 125,000 deaths, nearly double the number of overdose deaths in one year,” PolitiFact wrote. [PolitiFact, 10/16/25]
    • The strikes have drawn bipartisan concern, as legislators question the Trump administration's claims and their lack of supporting evidence. On Fox News Sunday, according to The Hill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stated that Congress has seen “no evidence presented” to support the administration's claims that the targets are drug traffickers. Similarly, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) stated that the evidence he has seen in support of the strikes “does not back up” the administration's claims that the boats were transporting fentanyl. [The Hill, 10/26/25]

  • Fox figures and guests cheered on the strikes and celebrated the administration's actions

    • Fox host Laura Ingraham called the strikes “pretty spectacular” and concluded, “I love this” and “Trump is actually trying to do something.” Former Army Special Forces member Jim Hanson said the “reward” for bringing “that poison into our country” is “getting turned into an oil slick on the Caribbean.” Jason Redman, a former Navy SEAL, applauded the U.S. for taking the “lead” and said we have to “break the will” of “individuals who are willing to go out in those boats and smuggle drugs into America.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/24/25]
    • In the week prior, Ingraham stated that “Trump's working overtime on issues that really matter,” such as “taking out deadly threats before they even arrive on our shores.” Ingraham played a video of a boat being bombed, adding her own “boom” sound effect. After playing a bleeped clip of Trump saying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro “doesn’t want to f— around with the United States,” Ingraham concluded, “Bombs and the f-bombs. At least we know President Trump will never stop trying to save American lives.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/17/25]
    • On America’s Newsroom, former FBI agent Dan Brunner called the strikes a “great move,” adding, “Let’s go on offense. Let’s push the envelope.” Brunner added that “we need to utilize” the FBI, Homeland Security, and CIA. He said: “We’ve got a lot of experience in conducting investigations into these cartels. … Blowing up a boat, yes, that stops that shipment. But we need to find out where all the shipments are coming from and going through the root system.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/17/25]
    • After a guest argued Trump should “keep pushing forward” as it's “the only way these traffickers will stop,” Fox host Lara Trump replied: “I think a lot of people agree with you. … Fortunately we have a president who is doing just that, meeting them with strength.” Trump also praised her father-in-law for dubbing his targets “ISIS of the Western hemisphere,” saying, “What a great name for these narco-terrorists. That’s exactly what I think they should be identified as.” [Fox News, My View with Lara Trump, 10/25/25]
    • Host Jesse Watters described a strike by saying: “Trump just smoked another coke boat in the Caribbean, and he’s just getting started.” In the segment that followed, correspondent David Spunt reported: “We can confirm the Pentagon deploying massive help in support of the operation to root out drugs being smuggled into the United States.” The chyron read, “Pentagon drops the hammer on smugglers.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 10/24/25]
    • On America’s Newsroom, former acting Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Derek Maltz called fentanyl “a weapon of mass destruction” and said he’s “very thankful” for the administration's “aggressive” approach. He also claimed that “of course it's fair game” to attack cartels on land. [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 10/24/25]
    • On Fox Noticias, guest Jesus Romero claimed that Trump is deploying “a military contingent to carry a message, not only to President Maduro, but also to all the criminals.” Romero added, “This is the message, and this is the response of the president of the United States“ to “return peace and tranquility and to stop the flow of drug trafficking into the United States.” [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 9/26/25]

  • Fox justified the strikes and repeated Trump's unproven claim that they save large numbers of American lives

    • Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt repeated the claim that “every boat that we strike is 25,000 American lives that have been saved.” Earhardt elaborated, saying, “We’re talking about … fentanyl pills, we’re talking about fentanyl powder, illegal guns, methamphetamine, cocaine, pounds of heroin.” Co-host Lawrence Jones, taking aim at naysayers, added, “You are going to have to choose a side. Are you going to be on the side of the cartels, which is the new ISIS, or are you going to be side of the American people?” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/24/25]
    • Host Laura Ingraham claimed, “Countless American lives will be saved because of our aggressive posture.” Ingraham praised Trump, saying he is “working overtime … targeting drug cartels that poison and kill hundreds of thousands of Americans with fentanyl and cocaine.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 10/23/25]
    • On The Story with Martha MacCallum, Derek Maltz claimed of the cartels: “We’ve never had any terrorist organizations, even if you combine Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, killing this many Americans.” He also argued of the supposed drug trafficking, “It's not even just a threat to our country, but once again President Trump is helping keep the world safe.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/20/25]
    • Fox Noticias host Rachel Campos-Duffy said, “If you are a criminal trafficking lethal drugs into this country that kill its people, you will face lethal consequences.” She added that “President Trump is not sorry” about the boat strike. [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 9/4/25]

  • Fox hosts and guests called for further violence and US intervention – with some even supporting Venezuelan regime change

    • On The Five, co-host Jesse Watters said the boat strikes are “more about regime change in Venezuela,” adding later, “There is going to be major action against Maduro pretty soon.” Watters said the action might be “a layup” and if it is, and “Maduro is deposed, we’re basically Monroe Doctrine-ing — we call it the Don-roe doctrine-ing — out of Latin America and China and Russia,” which would add up to Trump “wielding a lot of power internationally.” [Fox News, The Five, 10/16/25]
    • Jim Shedd, a former DEA agent, argued on Fox that “we should be striking the Venezuelan military outposts.” Shedd added that “the national guard of Venezuela and the Venezuelan army and the air force has to be destroyed because they are co-conspirators in the distribution of narcotics into this country, which has been causing death and havoc for decades.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 10/24/25]
    • On Fox Noticias, Jovel Alvarez, an independent journalist, said, “I hope that President Donald Trump takes the initiative to remove Maduro from power.” He added that Trump could “practically” become the “liberator of Venezuela.” [Fox Deportes, Fox Noticias, 10/15/25]
    • On Fox & Friends, retired Gen. Jack Keane said of Venezuela, “I think it’s high time we went after this thing that was polluting our population so much.” Keane argued that the Venezuelan government is “supporting the cartel in the sense the government is part of the cartel. Because they take the revenue from that source.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 10/24/25]
    • On Sunday Night In America with Trey Gowdy, after Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) mentioned that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Machado is planning to “open the oil rigs” to U.S. companies, host Trey Gowdy mentioned that “she may be leading that country here in the not-too-distant future.” [Fox News, Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy, 10/26/25]
    • On Fox Report, Manhattan Institute fellow Daniel Di Martino described Trump’s actions against Venezuela as “the same as fighting ISIS,” arguing the U.S. needs “to do everything possible.” He said: “And if that means striking inside Venezuela where Maduro is, who is a cartel leader, that the U.S. government doesn't recognize as president, this is the same as fighting ISIS, except that they’re actually bringing drugs and terrorism to America directly right now.” Di Martino also claimed, without citing evidence, that “80% of Venezuelans support” the strikes. He added that he is “very happy about hearing about the CIA operations in Venezuela, about bringing the carrier.” [Fox News, Fox Report with John Scott, 10/26/25]