President Donald Trump has claimed the boats and the people on them were trafficking illegal drugs bound for the US, dubbing them "narcoterrorists". The White House has provided little detail about the attacks in general, and no evidence the boats were trafficking drugs. Once in office, Trump declared a number of gangs as terrorist organisations, including one Venezuelan group, Tren de Aragua. The Trump government has claimed that Venezuelans deported from the US were members of Tren de Aragua, often without much substantial evidence. Trump and Rubio have both asserted the strikes will continue, without concern for the possibility that they could be considered war crimes.