President Donald Trump was widely mocked for claiming "we save 25,000 American lives" every time the U.S. military blows up a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean or the eastern Pacific. Undeterred by the well-deserved ridicule, the president is still pushing that preposterous premise, which implies that he has prevented 650,000 drug-related deaths by ordering attacks that so far have destroyed 26 vessels in 22 operations.
"Every boat that you see get blown up, we save 25,000, on average, lives, 25,000 lives," Trump averred during a Cabinet meeting last week. On Monday, he reiterated that "every single boat we shoot out, on average, we save 25,000 American lives."
