United States President Donald Trump has mentioned latest army strikes on 5 Venezuelan boats have saved “a minimum of 100,000 lives” as a result of the manoeuvres have thwarted drug smuggling.
“Each boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives, so each time you see a ship and you’re feeling badly you say, ‘Wow, that’s tough’: It’s tough, however should you lose three individuals and save 25,000 individuals,” President Donald Trump mentioned at an October 15 media convention.
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The administration didn’t provide PolitiFact with proof that the boats had been carrying drugs. Drug specialists informed PolitiFact that Venezuela performs a minor position in trafficking medication that attain the US. The legality of the strikes can also be unclear. After the primary assault in early September, some authorized specialists informed PolitiFact that the army motion was unlawful underneath maritime legislation or human rights conventions, and the assault contradicted longstanding US army practices.
Trump has used the determine repeatedly and likewise says he would take into account comparable strikes on land.
“Each a kind of boats is liable for the loss of life of 25,000 American individuals, and the destruction of households,” Trump mentioned in an October 5 speech to US Navy sailors. “So once you consider it that means, what we’re doing is definitely an act of kindness.
“We’ve taken a really laborious stand on medication … the water medication – the medication that are available in by water, they’re not coming – there are not any boats any extra, frankly, there are not any fishing boats, there’s no boats on the market, interval,” Trump informed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on October 7. “We’ve most likely saved a minimum of 100,000 lives, American lives, Canadian lives, by taking out these boats.”
A number of elements of Trump’s assertion make it mistaken.
There isn’t a means of understanding what number of lives are saved because of drug interception efforts, drug specialists have informed PolitiFact.
Moreover, if Trump’s assertion had been correct, the strikes on 5 boats in lower than two months would have saved practically double the variety of US lives misplaced to drug overdoses in a complete 12 months.
Trump administration has introduced no proof
The Trump administration hasn’t specified what sort of drug or what amount was on the boats that had been struck. So it’s unattainable to calculate what number of lethal doses might have been destroyed.
Trump mentioned on the October 15 media convention that the boats had been carrying fentanyl.
“And you may see it, the boats get hit, and also you see that fentanyl everywhere in the ocean,” Trump mentioned. “It’s like floating in baggage. It’s in every single place.”
He has shared aerial videos of a few of the boat strikes on Reality Social, however no baggage of medication are seen within the movies.
Moreover, most illicit fentanyl within the US comes from Mexico, not Venezuela. It enters the US primarily by the southern border at official ports of entry, and it’s smuggled in largely by US residents, in line with america Sentencing Fee.
Even when there have been fentanyl on board, Trump’s assertion is mathematically doubtful
If the boats every carried 25,000 deadly doses, that doesn’t imply the strikes stopped 125,000 individuals from dying of a drug overdose.
“When medication are seized, the availability chain partially replaces these misplaced medication,” Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon College drug coverage researcher, beforehand informed PolitiFact.
Overdose drug deaths have been declining for the previous couple of years, earlier than there have been any strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela, in line with provisional information from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
The CDC reported greater than 73,000 drug overdose deaths from Might 2024 to April 2025. For Trump’s assertion to be correct, the medication on 5 boats would have been liable for 125,000 deaths, practically double the variety of overdose deaths in a single 12 months.
Drug interception information doesn’t present what number of overdose deaths had been prevented
Trump isn’t the primary particular person to equate drug enforcement with saving lives. Through the years, we’ve fact-checked different politicians after they mentioned {that a} amount of medication seized on the US border was sufficient to kill a particular variety of individuals, or that these seizures saved a particular variety of lives.
Typically, the politicians we have now fact-checked referred to fentanyl seizures. The artificial opioid is the main reason for US overdose deaths. Politicians’ statements about lives saved depend on the deadly dose for fentanyl, two milligrams. So if authorities seized 10 milligrams of fentanyl, for instance, that saved 5 lives, politicians say.
However there are caveats to that calculation as a result of a dose’s lethality can range based mostly on an individual’s top, weight and tolerance from previous publicity, drug specialists say. And statistics about what number of medication had been stopped from getting into the US don’t account for what number of medication make it into the nation.
“We don’t have any technique I’m conscious of for translating drug seizure information into any measure of overdose deaths averted,” Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, a Johns Hopkins College well being coverage skilled, informed PolitiFact in Might.
Our ruling
Relating to boat strikes off the coast of Venezuela, Trump mentioned: “Each boat that we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives.”
Trump mentioned the 5 boats the US army struck off the coast of Venezuela had been carrying medication heading to the US. Nevertheless, specialists on medication and Venezuela informed PolitiFact the nation performs a minor position in trafficking medication that attain the US.
The administration has supplied no proof concerning the sort or amount of medication it says had been on the boats. This lack of expertise makes it unattainable to know what number of deadly doses of the medication might have been destroyed.
Even when the boats had been carrying 25,000 deadly drug doses every, that doesn’t imply that destroying them saved 125,000 lives. There have been 73,000 US drug overdose deaths from Might 2024 to April 2025. Meaning the medication on 5 boats would have been liable for 125,000 deaths, practically double the variety of US overdose deaths in a single 12 months.
The quantity of medication which can be stopped from getting into the US doesn’t point out what number of lives had been saved.
We price Trump’s assertion False.
