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[ad_1] No proof for Trump declare that every ‘drug boat’ might kill 25,000 Individuals printed at 11:21 BST 11:21 BST

Joshua Cheetham BBC Confirm journalist, reporting from Washington DC

President Donald Trump has defended the US strikes towards alleged drug boats off the coast off Venezuela and now within the japanese Pacific Ocean, claiming “everybody a kind of boats that will get knocked out is saving 25,000 Individuals lives”. We couldn't discover the place this determine comes from, so we requested the White Home.

A spokesperson didn't present any proof for the quantity, however mentioned “any boat bringing lethal poison to our shores has the potential to kill 25,000 Individuals or extra”.

After every strike, the Trump administration has launched grainy video however no proof of what was on board and no particulars in regards to the nature and amount of the medicine, making it inconceivable to independently assess how deadly the boat’s alleged cargo could possibly be.

<img alt="A screengrab from a US military video showing a boat being targeted for an air strike" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/640/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2025/10/23/dd42a0a5-b4a0-47d1-87ef-6ec871572471.jpg.webp" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/240/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2025/10/23/dd42a0a5-b4a0-47d1-87ef-6ec871572471.jpg.webp 240w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/320/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2025/10/23/dd42a0a5-b4a0-47d1-87ef-6ec871572471.jpg.webp 320w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/480/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2025/10/23/dd42a0a5-b4a0-47d1-87ef-6ec871572471.jpg.webp 480w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/624/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2025/10/23/dd42a0a5-b4a0-47d1-87ef-6ec871572471.jpg.webp 624w, https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/800/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2025/10/23/dd42a0a5-b4a0-47d1-87ef-6ec871572471.jpg.webp 800w" width="1000" height="562" class="ssrcss-11yxrdo-Image edrdn950"/> Picture supply, Donald Trump/Fact Social Picture caption, Trump shared a video on his Fact Social platform final week of an alleged medicine boat being focused

According to the latest provisional data , external from the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), there have been 73,690 reported deaths from drug overdoses within the US between April 2023 and April 2024.

So, utilizing Trump’s determine, stopping three "drug boats” can be sufficient to stop a complete yr’s value of drug overdose deaths. “I don’t see a universe wherein it [Trump’s claim] could possibly be probably be true,” Chelsea Shover, an affiliate professor of epidemiology on the College of California Los Angeles instructed us.