The Trump Administration’s Killing Rampage on Open Seas: A Video Roundup
Our mid-December collection of clips on the White House's brutal boat strikes—and what they reveal about this president's governing ethos
Dear Readers:
The Trump administration’s series of “lethal kinetic strikes” on vessels allegedly used for drug trafficking in the Caribbean Sea—there have been 22 such airstrikes since September—gives us perhaps the most vivid illustration yet of this White House’s most corrosive instincts: casual brutality, contempt for legal limits, revulsion of foreigners, and sheer operational incompetence that turns even routine missions into international crises.
The airstrikes, pursued as a supposed show of force against transnational drug networks, have now racked up 87 deaths—all this before any clear threat to the United States has been established. And with every passing day, the White House’s justifications become thinner, stranger, and more desperate.
The first two videos in our mid-December roundup lay out the scale of the horror and zoom in on the first—and most damning—strike. Our third video, a bonus clip from first-time video contributor , co-founder of the Center for New Liberalism and author of the Infinite Scroll newsletter, warns that progressive Democrats committed to opposing Trump’s authoritarian actions will forfeit the moral high ground if they give a pass to apologists for totalitarian regimes in their own ranks.
Watch the videos, and then follow/subscribe to our YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram pages to get our latest clips as soon as they’re released.
Landry Ayres
Senior Producer
Trump’s Murderous Rampage Against Alleged Venezuelan Narco-Smugglers
Nov. 1, 2025
In early November, roughly a month into the Venezuelan airstrikes, the administration had already killed 60 alleged narco-traffickers that it claimed were bringing drugs to America. But all evidence suggests that, rather than a carefully designed and implemented counter-narcotics program, the missions have been lawless killing sprees in open waters—ordered by an executive unburdened by guilt or conscience.
Watch the video below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
Hegseth’s Agency Mercilessly and Lawlessly Kills Boat Strike Survivors
Dec. 11, 2025
The legality of the administration’s “lethal kinetic strikes” against Venezuelan boats has been in doubt from the get go. But these actions crossed into war crimes territory when the Pentagon ordered a second strike that blew into smithereens two injured and helpless survivors of an initial boat bombing desperately hanging on to the wreckage for dear life. The second strike violated every established domestic and international rule of war. But rather than do a mea culpa and pull back, Trump officials engaged in a bureaucratic shell game to dodge accountability.
This video shows an administration that kills first and improvises legal theories later.
Watch the video below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
BONUS: The Left’s Authoritarian Apologist: Hasan Piker
Dec. 8, 2025
Last but not least is a debut clip from Jeremiah Johnson, who asks the anti-Trump, anti-authoritarian left why it is chumming around with an influencer like Hasan Piker? Piker, among other things, has a record of minimizing the atrocities of brutal regimes like China. A left that wants to oppose right-wing tyrants can’t embrace people like Piker without losing moral credibility.
Watch it below or on YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram.
© The UnPopulist, 2025
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The boat bombings ARE NOT WAR CRIMES. Stop calling them "war crimes"!
The US is not at war with Venezuela and ONLY CONGRESS CAN DECLARE WAR.
They are outright murder.