House Republican expresses concerns over Trump’s drug boat strikes

The first strike that took place by the Trump administration against alleged drug boats happened on September 2, 2025. That is the strike that is now getting all the attention because of the second strike that took place with survivors who were allegedly hors de combat.

Now, over and above the usual anti-Trump players, we are seeing pushback by Republicans in Congress.

Let’s Get It Started

As noted above, the first strike was on September 2, which included the controversial second missile salvo more than 30 minutes after the first ones hit.

That strike reportedly had the people in charge of the strikes rewriting the book on how they would approach survivors from that point forward.

The next strike took place on September 15, and from that point forward, for the most part, every few days, another strike took place.

Roughly seven dozen people have been killed in the strikes, with some members of Congress accusing the administration of what amounts to summary executions.

Paul Calls Out Hegseth

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has treated Hegseth like Dr. Fauci, and he really laid into him after Hegseth played coy about the second September 2 strike.

Hegseth’s story changed several times about the strike, and Paul was not cutting him any breaks.

He stated, “Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn’t happen.

“And then the next day, from the podium of the White House, they’re saying it did happen. So, either he was lying to us on Sunday, or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened.”

Concerns

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) is now jumping on the bandwagon of those who have expressed concerns about these strikes.

Regarding his concerns and the footage of the second September 2 strike, he stated, “Well, there is very grave concern in Congress about these strikes in general, and you just hit, you know, exactly why, because of the contrast.

“These individuals are not being subject to criminal prosecution. And if they were subject to criminal prosecution, there’s no capital punishment.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who has seen the video, has already stated that he thought the strikes were righteous, so this is clearly not the narrative GOP leadership wants to see pushed. It will be interesting to see if Turner changes his tune once he does see that video.