During an afternoon press conference on Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. military had destroyed a “drug-carrying boat” that came out of Venezuela. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is currently traveling to Mexico, followed up on the president’s comments with a post on X.
As @potus just announced moments ago, today the U.S. military conducted a lethal strike in the southern Carribean against a drug vessel which had departed from Venezuela and was being operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 2, 2025
We’re now learning more details about the military action. Trump posted the following on Truth Social this evening:
Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of Nicolas Maduro, responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and Western Hemisphere. The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE! Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!!!!!!!!!
The White House also shared a video of the operation:
🇺🇸 ON VIDEO: U.S. Military Forces conducted a strike against Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists. The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the U.S. The strike resulted in 11 terrorists killed in action. pic.twitter.com/iszHE0ttxQ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) September 2, 2025
With any luck, there’s more where that came from.
Rubio also spoke to the press this evening and doubled down on the idea that the Trump administration is going to be on offense when it comes to drug cartels going forward. “It destabilizes not just the country, but the entire Caribbean basin. These particular drugs were probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean, at which point they just contribute to the instability these countries are facing,” he said. “So the president’s been very clear that he’s going to use the full power of America and the full might of the United States to take on and eradicate these drug cartels, no matter where they’re operating from and, and no matter how long they’ve been able to act with impunity. Those days are over for them.”
When asked if the U.S. plans to take specific action on Venezuelan soil against Maduro, he said, “I’m not going to speculate about what might come down the road.”
As we’ve reported over the last week, the U.S. military presence in the southern Caribbean Sea is growing, specifically in the waters outside of Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro is currently running the country into the ground. This has had a tremendous negative impact on the U.S. and other countries in the Western Hemisphere. Maduro is not just an illegitimate president, but leader of Cartel de los Soles. The U.S. currently has a $50 million bounty on his head.
Related for VIPs: The Truth Behind Tren de Aragua
And while Maduro claims that Tren de Aragua (TdA) — the terrorist organization involved in today’s military operation — no longer exists and that international sources only claim it does to make Venezuela look bad, Rubio says otherwise. He claims that TdA is actually a proxy for Maduro. He uses it to destabilize Western nations, especially the United States, through drug trafficking and irregular warfare. Maduro has also reportedly utilized TdA to assassinate and intimidate political opponents. At the very least, we know TdA is alive and well and Maduro tolerates it, but I think Rubio knows exactly what he’s talking about in this situation.
I won’t rehash everything that led up to this moment over the last few weeks — you can read about that here and here — but i do want to touch on something that I haven’t really talked about yet in my ongoing coverage of what is hopefully the beginning of the liberation of Venezuela.
Secretary Rubio posted this on X today before he announced the news about the cartel boat. At first glance, it looks like a generic statement on what happened today. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.
💨= 🔥
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) September 2, 2025
But I think this post was a lot more personal. Rubio and Maduro have been engaged in a war of words for years. If it wasn’t such a serious matter for all the people who have suffered across the United States, Venezuela, and the entire Western Hemisphere, it’d be entertaining. Rubio, of course, has criticized Maduro relentlessly, while Maduro accused the U.S. of imperialism and Rubio of having some sort of personal vendetta against him.
As recently as yesterday, Maduro, who has ramped up the propaganda lately in wake of the growing international pressure on him, spoke out during a press conference and warned Trump that Rubio is pushing him toward a “massacre.” He also said that Trump should “watch out, because Mr. Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood.” (The following is translated from Spanish.)
Mr. President, you need to look out because Marco Rubio wants to stain your hands with blood, with South American, Caribbean, Venezuelan blood. They want to take you to a bloodbath and have your name stained for centuries to come as a result of a terrible war against South America and the Caribbean.
I guess the poor little old dictator wants the world to think that Rubio the aggressor in this situation. He also claimed that Venezuela faces “its biggest threat in 100 years” and that “eight warships with 1,200 missiles and a nuclear submarine are pointed at Venezuela.” 1,200? I don’t know about that. I’d also argue that the Chavista dictatorship has been Venezuela’s biggest threat in 100 years, though no one asked me.
But back to the smoke and fire. One of Maduro’s cronies, Diosdado Cabello, another narco-terrorist with a $25 million U.S. bounty on this head who currently serves as the regime’s so-called “Minister of the Popular Power for Interior, Justice and Peace of Venezuela,” likes to mock the growing international pressure on Maduro as pote de humo or “pot of smoke” —what we might simply call empty threats. He insinuated that as recently as August 28 on a Venezuelan television program. Rubio is not a big fan of Cabello either.
My guess is that Rubio was rubbing it in a little bit and sending a warning to these guys: Where there is smoke, there is indeed fire, and he and the president will continue to expose them and protect the United States and the entire Western Hemisphere from their actions.
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