INTERNACIONAL
Democrats escalate war-crime accusations as White House calls ‘innocent fisherman’ the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax
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Democrat lawmakers are increasingly turning up the heat on the Trump administration over its series of military strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean since September, most recently focusing on alleged drug runners who survived an initial strike and were killed by a follow-up.
«If the reports are true, [Secretary of War] Pete Hegseth likely committed a war crime when he gave an illegal order that led to the killing of incapacitated survivors of the U.S. strike in the Caribbean,» Nevada Democrat Sen. Sen. Jacky Rosen said in a statement earlier in December of strikes that killed suspected traffickers.
The White House told Fox News Digital on Friday that the Democrat criticism echoes the «Maryland Man» hoax, referring to the arrest of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an accused MS-13 gang member who was illegally residing in Maryland.
Abrego Garcia received an outpouring of support from Democrat lawmakers in March over his deportation to El Salvador, with lawmakers traveling to El Salvador to meet with him, and media outlets describing him as a «Maryland man.»
EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’
President Donald Trump is greeted by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth before speaking to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
«’Innocent fisherman’ is the new ‘Maryland Man’ hoax – just like the media tried to paint MS-13 human smuggler Kilmar Abrego Garcia as ‘father of the year,’ they are now running cover for foreign terrorists smuggling deadly narcotics intended to murder Americans. President Trump is using every element of American power to take on the cartels and stop deadly drugs from flooding into our country – just like he promised on the campaign trail,» White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly told Fox Digital.
Trump has long vowed to take on the ongoing opioid epidemic and stop foreign drugs and precursor chemicals from flowing into the U.S. The administration has defended the at least 22 strikes, which have killed dozens of suspected drug criminals, on suspected narco-boats as protecting the U.S. from cartels looking to «poison Americans.»
Kilmar Abrego Garcia (R) and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura (L) attend a prayer vigil before he enters a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland. ( Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
«These narco-terrorists are bringing drugs to our shores to poison Americans at home — and they will not succeed,» Hegseth wrote in a post on X in November. «The Department will treat them EXACTLY how we treated Al-Qaeda. We will continue to track them, map them, hunt them, and kill them.»
Democrats have increasingly taken issue with a pair of strikes on Sept. 2 against an alleged drug boat from Venezuela. The White House confirmed the military carried out an initial strike on the boat before firing off a second that killed two suspected traffickers, sparking Democrats to claim the administration committed potential war crimes.
«You have two individuals in clear distress, without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, who were killed by the United States,» Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters earlier in December of the strikes.
While Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly shot back, «Going after survivors in the water, that is clearly not lawful.»
Fox News Digital reached out to Kelly’s and Himes’ respective offices for comment on the White House statement and the opioid epidemic in the U.S., but did not immediately receive replies.
Rosen’s office told Fox News Digital on Friday in response: «If Donald Trump is serious about fighting drug smuggling, why did he pardon the former President of Honduras who was convicted for smuggling hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States? And why did the Trump Administration threaten to cut millions of dollars in funding to address the opioid epidemic? The American people deserve to know.»
Republicans such as Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, remarked that video of the survivors allegedly showed individuals who wanted to «stay in the fight.»
«I saw two survivors trying to flip a boat, loaded with drugs bound for the United States, back over so they could stay in the fight,» Cotton said.
Alabama Republican Senate candidate Capt. Morgan Murphy told Fox News Digital that he’s seeing «utter hypocrisy from a party of theater kids who just don’t care about the lives being lost to the drug trade» when asked about Democrats sounding off about the strikes.
«For nearly a decade, Democrats lauded President Obama as the ‘Prince of Peace,’ even though his bomb strikes Yemen, Pakistan, and Somalia killed hundreds of civilians. None of those countries were at war with the United States or targeted American civilians,» Murphy said, referring how former President Barack Obama faced war-crimes accusations from critics over his administration’s drone strikes and civilian casualties in countries like Pakistan, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
Murphy formerly served as the head of public diplomacy for the President’s Special Envoy to Russia and Ukraine in the Trump administration before launching his Senate campaign earlier in the fall. He is a captain in the U.S. Navy Reserves, as well as a veteran of the Afghanistan war, where he was awarded the Meritorious Defense Service Medal and the Afghan campaign medal, among others.
«But when President Trump pushes his own effort to stop human smugglers and drug dealers who have done untold harm and killed millions of Americans, they want to place the President and Secretary of War on a show trial,» he said.
President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he ordered a lethal strike on a vessel linked to a designated terrorist organization operating in the U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility on Sept. 19. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
CAPITOL HILL REVOLT THREATENS TRUMP’S VENEZUELA PLAYBOOK AMID CARIBBEAN STRIKE OVERSIGHT
The Trump administration launched the strikes after the president campaigned to end the flow of narcotics into the U.S. from nations including China, Mexico and Central and South America. The Trump administration turned its attention toward Venezuela, which is led by dictatorial president Nicolás Maduro, saying the U.S. is engaged in an «armed conflict» with drug cartels after the groups evolved into transnational terror organizations.
The administration has defended the strikes as necessary to curb the flow of opioid deaths in the U.S., while experts have also said the pressure campaign on Venezuela is likely aimed to also oust Maduro as leader of the oil-rich nation.
HEGSETH DID NOT ISSUE ‘KILL THEM ALL’ ORDER DURING VENEZUELA STRIKES, ADMIRAL TELLS CONGRESS
The CDC found that an estimated 806,000 people died from an opioid overdose between 1999-2023. The opioid crisis is viewed as unfolding in three waves, beginning in the 1990s with the increase in prescriptions to opioids, the CDC reported, followed by the second wave that began in 2010, when heroin overdoses spiked, and finally the current third wave of deaths involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
The crisis has slowed from its high of 81,806 opioid-related deaths in 2022, with 2023 marking the first annual decline in deaths since 2018, according to CDC data. There were an estimated 79,358 opioid deaths in 2023, according to CDC data.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that has grown in popularity and contributed to a spike in opioid deaths in the U.S. in recent years. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
As of Thursday, an estimated 86 suspected drug traffickers have died in the strikes.
Fentanyl has long been on the medical market to treat individuals suffering with severe pain, but has since become an illegal manufactured substance by transnational criminal organizations, such as cartels.
Trump vowed in his 2022 announcement that he would run for re-election to the White House that cartels would face the U.S. wrath over overdose deaths upon his return to the Oval Office.
RAND PAUL JOINS DEMS ON ‘WAR POWERS RESOLUTION’ CLAIMING TRUMP ADMIN COULD SOON STRIKE VENEZUELAN TERRITORY
«We will wage war upon the cartels and stop the fentanyl and deadly drugs from killing 200,000 Americans per year,» he said in November of 2024, previewing his administration.
Several Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee told Fox News Digital that the Trump administration has been well within its rights to act against Maduro’s regime. They added that they’re eager for more information after several strikes against alleged Venezuelan drug boats and Trump’s heightened rhetoric targeting Maduro.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is facing increasing pressure from the U.S. as the Trump administ (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)
«These boats, they’re stacked up with bags of white powder, that’s mostly fentanyl and other drugs too,» Trump said in September. «Every boat kills 25,000.»
Democrats in past decades have promoted fiery rhetoric focused on taking out foreign narco-terrorist, including then-Delaware Sen. Joe Biden calling for «another D-Day» to end the war on drugs in a 1989 address criticizing Republican President George H.W. Bush’s administration for not taking strong enough action on the crack cocaine epidemic.
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«Let’s go after the drug lords where they live with an international strike force. There must be no safe haven for these narco-terrorists and they must know it,» Biden said in the 1989 speech.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
donald trump,drug and substance abuse,crime,joe biden
INTERNACIONAL
La muerte del capo narco Nemesio Oseguera, “El Mencho”: Washington dice que es “un gran acontecimiento” para México, Estados Unidos y América Latina
«Se me ha informado que fuerzas de seguridad mexicanas han matado a ‘El Mencho’, uno de los capos de la droga más sanguinarios», dijo en la red X, Christopher Landau, subsecretario de Estado de ese país. «Esto es un gran hito para México, Estados Unidos, América Latina y el mundo (…). Los buenos somos más que los malos. Felicidades a las fuerzas del orden público de la gran nación mexicana», añadió.
El ejército mexicano anunció este domingo que mató al poderoso capo del narcotráfico Nemesio Oseguera «El Mencho», líder del Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), tras un violento operativo que conmovió al estado de Jalisco.
La muerte del «Mencho» ocurre en medio de la presión del gobierno del presidente estadounidense, Donald Trump, para que México frene el envío de drogas, en particular del fentanilo, a su país.
Trump ha amagado en varias ocasiones con aranceles a las exportaciones mexicanas, al señalar que el gobierno de la presidenta Claudia Sheinbaum no ha hecho lo suficiente para combatir al narcotráfico.
«El Mencho», de 59 años, era uno de los capos más buscados por México y Estados Unidos, que ofrecía una recompensa de 15 millones de dólares. Era uno de los líderes narco más importantes en actividad tras el arresto de los fundadores del Cártel de Sinaloa, Joaquín Guzmán «El Chapo» e Ismael «Mayo» Zambada, actualmente en prisión en Estados Unidos.
El ejército dijo en un comunicado que el «Mencho» resultó herido en un enfrentamiento con militares en la localidad de Tapalpa, en Jalisco (oeste), y murió «durante su traslado vía aérea a la Ciudad de México».
El ejército añadió que, para la ejecución de esta operación, «además de los trabajos de inteligencia militar central» (…) «se contó con información complementaria» por parte de autoridades estadounidenses.
En total, murieron siete delincuentes y tres militares resultaron heridos. Dos miembros del CJNG fueron detenidos y se incautó diverso armamento, como lanzacohetes capaces de derribar aeronaves y destruir vehículos blindados, según la misma fuente.
Sujetos armados bloquearon con autos y camiones incendiados distintas vías de Jalisco, en respuesta al operativo de fuerzas federales en la región. Por la tarde se veían restos de vehículos calcinados y otros aún en llamas en varias carreteras, en medio del sonido de las sirenas de las fuerzas de seguridad.
Las autoridades han señalado que 21 bloqueos carreteros siguen activos. El ejército añadió que elementos militares se concentran en los estados aledaños a Jalisco «para reforzar la seguridad».
El estado de Jalisco, que recibirá cuatro partidos del Mundial de Fútbol de 2026, ordenó la cancelación de eventos masivos este domingo y la suspensión de clases presenciales para el lunes.
En Guadalajara, capital de Jalisco, diversos negocios, desde farmacias hasta tiendas de conveniencia y gasolineras, cerraron sus puertas y las calles lucen semivacías, constató la AFP.
«Llegaron unos sujetos armados, vi la pistola y dijeron que nos saliéramos, nos salimos y tenían un carro con las puertas abiertas. Pensé que nos iban a secuestrar, corrí para enfrente a un puesto de tacos y me resguardé con ellos», dijo a AFP María Medina, quien trabaja en una tienda de conveniencia que fue incendiada por sujetos armados.
Los bloqueos por el operativo en el que murió Oseguera se extendieron también al balneario de Puerto Vallarta y al vecino estado de Michoacán, en donde su organización tiene presencia.
El cártel del «Mencho» fue formado en 2009 y se convirtió en una de las bandas del narcotráfico más violentas de México, según información del Departamento de Justicia estadounidense.
Estados Unidos ha nombrado a ese cártel como una organización terrorista y lo acusa del tráfico de cocaína, heroína, metanfetamina y fentanilo.
Oseguera es también un viejo conocido del actual secretario de Seguridad Pública federal, Omar García Harfuch. El 20 de junio de 2020 el «Mencho» ordenó un inédito asalto armado contra Harfuch en calles de Ciudad de México. El funcionario resultó herido y tres personas murieron, entre ellos dos escoltas.
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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas ripped the court’s decision blocking President Donald Trump’s use of an emergency law to impose sweeping tariffs on trading partners, calling it a fundamental misread of both the governing statute and the Constitution’s separation of powers.
«As (Kavanaugh) explains, the Court’s decision … cannot be justified as a matter of statutory interpretation. Congress authorized the President to ‘regulate … importation,’» Thomas wrote in his dissent. «Throughout American history, the authority to ‘regulate importation’ has been understood to include the authority to impose duties on imports.»
The court invalidated Trump’s use of an emergency law to impose tariffs in a 6–3 decision Friday morning after weeks of Trump championing that the court should rule in his favor as part of his larger effort to boost the economy, jobs and bring down costs for Americans. Thomas and Justice Samuel Alito joined Justice Brett Kavanaugh in dissenting from the ruling, with Thomas also offering his own separate dissent.
The majority of the court ruled Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president, even after declaring a national emergency, to impose tariffs — and that Congress did not speak clearly enough to transfer its tariff-and-tax power to the executive branch.
TRUMP RESPONDS TO SUPREME COURT RULING REJECTING SWEEPING TARIFFS POWERS: ‘A DISGRACE’
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a blistering dissent Feb. 20, 2026, after the Supreme Court found President Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is a 1977 law that allows the president, after declaring a national emergency in response to foreign threats, to regulate or block certain economic transactions and property interests, such as by imposing sanctions.
«The president asserts the extraordinary power to unilaterally impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration, and scope,» Supreme Court Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. «In light of the breadth, history, and constitutional context of that asserted authority, he must identify clear congressional authorization to exercise it.»
TRUMP’S TARIFF REVENUES HIT RECORD HIGHS AS SUPREME COURT DEALS MAJOR BLOW
In his dissent, Thomas argued that nondelegation doctrine is a narrow constraint, saying a line is crossed only when Congress delegates «core» power to make rules triggering deprivations of «life, liberty, or property» — not «from delegating other kinds of power,» such as tariffs.
The nondelegation doctrine forbids Congress from delegating core legislative power to the president.
The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
«As I suggested over a decade ago, the nondelegation doctrine does not apply to ‘a delegation of power to make rules governing private conduct in the area of foreign trade,’ including rules imposing duties on imports,» Thomas wrote. «Therefore, to the extent that the Court relies on ‘separation of powers principles’ to rule against the President is mistaken.»
SUPREME COURT RULES ON TRUMP TARIFFS IN MAJOR TEST OF EXECUTIVE BRANCH POWERS
Thomas pointed to President Nixon’s 1971 import surcharge as a real-world test case that was later upheld in United States v. Yoshida Int’l under IEEPA’s predecessor statute, the Trading with the Enemy Act.
Nixon announced a 10% across-the-board import surcharge on foreign nations in 1971, with the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals upholding the policy under the same «regulate … importation» language in 1975.
President Donald Trump displays a signed executive order imposing tariffs on imported goods during a «Make America Wealthy Again» trade announcement event in the White House Rose Garden April 2, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
«The meaning of that phrase was beyond doubt by the time that Congress enacted this statute, shortly after President Nixon’s highly publicized duties on imports were upheld based on identical language,» Thomas wrote.
«The statute that the President relied on therefore authorized him to impose the duties on imports at issue in these cases,» Thomas wrote, adding that Kavanaugh «makes clear that the Court errs in concluding otherwise.»
Trump unveiled his tariff policies in April 2025, which have come with repeatedly updated deals with foreign nations, as a tool to bring parity to U.S. trade policy and encourage businesses to open up shop on U.S. soil as part of an American manufacturing renaissance to boost the job market and the economy.
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Trump, in recent months, has repeatedly promoted that the Supreme Court rule in his favor, warning just Thursday during a trip to a steel factory in Georgia that «without tariffs, this country would be in such trouble right now.»
The president held a press conference shortly after the decision on Friday, announcing a 10% global tariff, while underscoring that the «Supreme Court did not overrule tariffs,» but «merely overruled a particular use of IEEPA tariffs.»
donald trump,economy,supreme court,politics,law
INTERNACIONAL
Iran could ‘activate’ Hezbollah if US targets regime, Trump’s inner circle to decide: expert
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Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has tightened control over Hezbollah in the Middle East amid looming prospects of potential U.S. strikes, according to reports.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the tactical shift comes as Hezbollah and Iran prepare for military confrontation in the region, with analysts warning that if Washington specifically strikes the regime, Hezbollah is ready to be «activated.»
«If the regime in Tehran feels threatened, the likelihood of unleashing Hezbollah against Israel and U.S. regional assets increases substantially,» Ross Harrison, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital.
«Hezbollah would not be activated right away, unless the attack immediately targets the leadership of the Islamic Republic. But as part of a graduated response, Hezbollah will likely be seen as an asset,» he said.
«If it faces an existential risk, then Iran may throw caution to the wind and try to deploy Hezbollah to the maximum,» Harrison, author of «Decoding Iran’s Foreign Policy» explained.
IRAN SIGNALS NUCLEAR PROGRESS IN GENEVA AS TRUMP CALLS FOR FULL DISMANTLEMENT
«As part of a graduated response, Hezbollah will likely be seen as an asset,» Ross Harrison, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, told Fox News Digital. (Fadel Itani/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump previously gave Iran a deadline of 10 to 15 days to respond to a deal, raising questions about what steps Washington could take if Tehran fails to comply.
A new round of talks is now scheduled for Thursday in Geneva and expected to focus on Iran’s nuclear program, including uranium enrichment levels and sanctions relief.
«The decision-making circle in the White House is very small regarding Iran, with the president keeping a close hand on it all,» Harrison explained.
He added that any decision to directly target the Iranian regime would likely rest within Trump’s inner circle of advisers.
«Normally there is input from the National Security Council and the wider intelligence community,» Harrison said. «Since the decision-making process in the White House is opaque, it is hard to know how much of this is getting through.»
WITKOFF WARNS IRAN IS ‘A WEEK AWAY’ FROM ‘BOMB-MAKING MATERIAL’ AS TRUMP WEIGHS ACTION
Another round of talks between the U.S. and Iran is slated for Thursday in Geneva. (Getty Images)
«If the U.S. is engaging with the Saudis and Emiratis, they are getting warnings about the possibility of this war spreading to the broader region, which would be deleterious to the U.S. and its allies,» he added.
Harrison also warned that there was «potential for attacks to spread across the region, to Israel through direct Iranian ballistic attacks and via Hezbollah, and to the Gulf Arab states through Iran directly and possibly via the Houthis from Yemen.»
Regional media reports also suggest Iran’s ties with Hezbollah are strengthening. Sources told Al Arabiya and Al Hadath that IRGC officers have been rebuilding Hezbollah’s military infrastructure and managing strategic war plans.
The coordination follows changes within Hezbollah’s leadership, Harrison explained.
«Since the killing by Israel of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last year, ties and operational coordination have to some degree been reestablished,» he said.
«The IRGC has supported Hezbollah in Lebanon for decades,» he said, adding that efforts to reestablish ties appear to be occurring «particularly in light of the destruction of Iran’s nuclear sites last June.»
IRAN DRAWS MISSILE RED LINE AS ANALYSTS WARN TEHRAN IS STALLING US TALKS
«Since the killing by Israel of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last year, ties and operational coordination have to some degree been reestablished,» Harrison said. (Marwan Naamani/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)
«Iran is trying to resurrect lost assets, such as its missile program and its connections to Hezbollah,» Harrison said.
«Hezbollah has been seen for decades by Iran as a deterrence asset against an Israeli or American attack. Since Hezbollah has its own interests, connected to but separate from Iran, whether its leadership will go all the way for Tehran is unknown,» he concluded.
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The developments surrounding Hezbollah and the IRGC came as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has appointed close ally Ali Larijani as the country’s de facto leader, according to reports.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
middle east,iran,ali khamenei,donald trump,middle east foreign policy,israel,lebanon
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