Under Trump, Process Is for Suckers

There may be no other phrase more fitting for the second Trump administration than “I don’t give a sh-t.”

That was Vice President J.D. “Very Online” Vance on Saturday morning, though the full quotation is, “I don’t give a sh-t what you call it.” The “you” in this case was Brian Krassenstein, a prominent left-wing poster on X, and the “it” was last week’s strike by the U.S. military on a boat in the southern Caribbean that President Donald Trump has said was manned by members of the transnational criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA). 

Vance said the attack, which killed 11 alleged drug smugglers, was the “highest and best use of our military,” and Krassenstein replied that it was a “war crime,” prompting the vice president’s aforementioned colorful dismissal. The administration has not offered any proof for the public of the identity of the boat's passengers nor a legal justification for the strike. A designated terrorist organization, TdA is a Venezuelan-based criminal network that is known more for its human trafficking operations than drug trafficking.