Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and her department have been accused of lying to the public after being caught passing off an old photo of a drug boat to promote Trump’s war on narco-terrorists.
On Monday, the DHS News account posted a photo on X designed to discredit Colombian President Gustavo Petro, who had accused Trump of murdering an innocent fisherman in an attack on a boat the U.S. claimed was run by drug smugglers.
“Colombian President claims one of the Narco boats destroyed by the US Naval Task Force was ‘just a poor Colombian fisherman’. Does this look like a fishing boat? It looks like he had tons of bait (cocaine, attracts lots of fish). Colombian president is a liar!!” the post said.
The photo featured the rear of a motorboat, with what appeared to be numerous bags of drugs.
However, the post was deleted after social media users pointed out that it came from a 2024 operation that took place about 1000 kilometers south of the Canary Islands, which was reported at the time by Spanish newspaper El País.
“This photo is from a drug bust that occurred in 2024, zero ties to the current situation,” said a community note that was added to the post as a consumer-based fact check.
“Photo is taken from the video attached in the article below.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to Noem’s department to ask about the post and why it was deleted.
But it is not the first time that the administration has been accused of misleading the public in order to push its agenda.
“They lie so brazenly that it is still shocking to me,” said political commentator and podcaster Krystal Ball, in a sentiment echoed by many others.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump and the White House were caught shamelessly passing off old clips of ICE raids in Florida in a video about “chaos” in Chicago.
The video was posted to the official White House X account showing masked and armed goons kicking down doors and making arrests.
The clip featured a voiceover from Trump calling Chicago a “mess” and attacking Chicago’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson and Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker alongside the words: “ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS, CARTELS, AND GANGS ARE POISONING OUR KIDS.”
However, as revealed by the Daily Beast, much of the footage was actually filmed in April in Florida, the state home to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence. The palm trees in the video, which are not known to grow in Chicago, were the big giveaway.
While the latest DHS post at least featured a drug bust, the fact that it was not what the department claimed has fueled suspicions about America’s boat strikes.
Trump has launched at least six known strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats from Latin America, claiming the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels that are linked to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
But while the strikes have killed an estimated 29 people, the U.S. has offered no evidence of who or what was on board, prompting growing international skepticism about their legality.
A strike on a submarine last week raised further concerns, with two alleged drug smugglers released and repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador, sparking suggestions that the crew was released to avoid extended legal scrutiny.
Colombia’s president was one of the first world leaders to call Trump out over the strikes, using his speech to the United Nations last month to demand a criminal investigation.
But things worsened last week, when Petro claimed that one man who was killed in a boat strike that took place in mid-September was “lifelong fisherman” Alejandro Carranza, whose boat had experienced damage and was adrift.
“U.S. government officials have committed a murder and violated our sovereignty in territorial waters,” he wrote on social media.
Trump responded online by declaring Petro, who rose to prominence as a Colombian senator by exposing links between right-wing paramilitary groups involved in drug trafficking and corrupt politicians, was an “illegal drug leader.”
He also threatened to enact tariffs on Colombia’s exports, claiming that the country “does nothing to stop” drug production.
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