Trump says stopping suspected drug boats doesn't work. But the US reports record cocaine seizures

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FILE - President Donald Trump answers questions from reporters during a roundtable on criminal cartels in the State Dining Room of the White House, Oct. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

MIAMI – In justifying American military strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs, President Donald Trump has asserted that the longtime U.S. strategy of interdicting such vessels at sea has been a major failure.

“We’ve been doing that for 30 years,” he said last month, “and it’s been totally ineffective.”

Trump’s comments came around the same time that the U.S. Coast Guard announced it had set a record for cocaine seizures — a haul of 225 metric tons of the drug over the previous year. That milestone, however, ha