President Donald Trump on Saturday held an extended news conference to explain the U.S. raid on Venezuela to extract President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, at times veering off topic and repeating false claims around his initiatives.
In praising the military, Trump highlighted National Guard deployments into U.S. cities, making erroneous claims about crime in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Los Angeles.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
TRUMP, discussing the impact of U.S. strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela: “Each boat kills on average, 25,000 people.”
THE FACTS: Trump has previously made this claim suggesting that 25,000 American lives are saved with every alleged drug boat U.S strikes “take out.” But the numbers don’t add up and sometimes don’t exist. For example, people in the U.S. who die from drug overdoses each year are far fewer than the number of people Trump suggests have been saved by the boat strikes his administration has carried out since September.
According to the latest preliminary data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention’s National Vital Statistics System, there were up to 76,516 drug overdose deaths in the U.S. during the 12-month period that ended in April 2025, down 24.5% from the up to 101,363 for the previous 12-month period.
The U.S. military has attacked at least 35 boats in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since strikes began on Sept. 2, most recently on Dec. 31. Using Trump’s numbers, that would mean...
Top Minnesota Democrats are condemning President Trump for amplifying false claims about the murder of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman. Driving the news: On Saturday, Trump shared a Truth Soc...