Trump’s Team Is Struggling to Get Its “Drug Boat” Story Straight

President Donald Trump’s administration appears to be changing its story to help justify an unprecedented military strike on a boat officials claim was carrying drugs.

The New York Times reported Thursday that some officials at the Department of Defense had privately expressed concerns that the government had changed details of its story about the deadly strike earlier this week, which killed 11 people.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday that the ship was traveling to Trinidad, Tobago, or “some other country in the Caribbean.” But after President Donald Trump claimed the ship was on course for the United States, Rubio changed his tune.

International drug traffickers “pose an immediate threat to the United States, period,” Rubio said Wednesday at a joint press conference in Mexico City. “If you’re on a boat full of cocaine or fentanyl or whatever headed to the United States, you’re an immediate threat to the United States.”

Shifting the narrative to center the United States is particularly concerning, considering the fact that the Trump administration has yet to produce a legal authority for the use of military force against cartels.

Trump claimed Tuesday that the 11 crew members were “narco terrorists” who belonged to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang, which the executive branch has labeled a terrorist organization. But such a designation does not serve as any legal basis for a combat strike.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Wednesday that administration officials “knew exactly who was in that boat” and “exactly what they were doing.” But the government has offered no evidence to support its claim that the individuals on the boat were in fact drug traffickers.

Despite Trump posting a video of the incident to Truth Social, the actual details still remain murky beneath the Trump administration’s shifting narratives, and the government has been anything but transparent about the military strike, which may prove to have been illegal.