Just Cause 2.0: Trump’s War Without a War

Reagan had the Contras, Bush had Noriega, Trump has a Truth-Social snuff film. What he really wants isn’t regime change in Caracas, it’s regime change in the headlines.

Donald Trump has discovered a new toy in his second term: blowing up boats on live TV. This week, the president stood in the Oval Office and bragged that U.S. forces had “literally shot out a boat, a drug-carrying boat, a lot of drugs in that boat.” Moments later, Marco Rubio, now somehow both Secretary of State and National Security Adviser, dutifully confirmed it on Twitter, calling the strike “lethal” and “necessary.” Trump himself posted the video on Truth Social, unclassified and perfectly packaged for social media.

This wasn’t your standard Coast Guard bust. The administration claims the boat was crewed by eleven members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, labeled “narco-terrorists” by Washington. According to Trump, they were killed at sea before their supposed drug shipment could reach American shores. The Pentagon, meanwhile, is refusing to explain under what legal authority the strike was carried out, or how intelligence officials were so certain this speedboat was full of cocaine and cartel members. Details are fuzzy; spectacle is the point.

If all this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. U.S. presidents have long used “drugs” as a convenient cover for military adventurism in Latin America, usually when the real goal was regime change.