Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent weeks clearing out the traditional Pentagon press corps and replacing it with a stable of pro-Trump influencers. Now one of his most vocal loyalists is publicly poking holes in his own favorite talking point, the Venezuelan drug boat strikes.
Far right activist Laura Loomer, newly credentialed to cover the Pentagon under Hegseth’s restrictive media rules, is openly questioning why the Trump administration is fixated on Venezuela when fentanyl that is killing Americans is largely tied to Mexico and China. Her posts come just as Hegseth faces accusations from lawmakers that parts of the campaign may amount to war crimes.
Since September, U.S. air and naval forces have carried out more than a dozen strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific that officials say were linked to Venezuelan criminal groups, killing more than 80 people the administration labels “narcoterrorists.” President Donald Trump has argued the operations are needed to stop fentanyl and other hard drugs from reaching U.S. shores.
Loomer is not disputing the killings themselves; rather, she is challenging the basic logic behind the targets.
“I have no sympathy for narcoterrorists being killed,” she wrote on X on Monday. “It’s just worth noting” that a large share of the drug supply entering the United States “is coming in from Mexico, especially the fentanyl. Fentanyl isn’t being manufactured in Venezuela.”
In the same post, Loomer pressed the question Hegseth and Trump have so far dodged in public.
“Given that 90% of the drugs coming into the US that are killing Americans are coming from Mexico, when can we expect to see air strikes on the Mexican cartels in Mexico?” she asked. “Or what about China, since China produces the chemicals that are used to make fentanyl in Mexico?”
What’s really interesting about the strikes in Venezuela is the fact that only 8% of the drug supply that comes into the US is coming from Venezuela. Most of it is cocaine.
I have no sympathy for narcoterrorists being killed. It’s just worth noting that over 90% of the drug… https://t.co/qtYbHIMF96
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) December 8, 2025
Her comments line up with a recent Drug Enforcement Administration assessment, which traces fentanyl in the United States to China based chemical suppliers and Mexican criminal organizations, and does not list Venezuela as a key node in the fentanyl pipeline.
Loomer went even further, tagging the official Department of War account and writing, “It makes a lot of sense to start with neutralizing the Mexican cartels since that’s where most of the damage is coming from. It makes me wonder why this hasn’t been done… surely the @DeptofWar knows where all of the Mexican drug lords live.”
Her needling comes at an awkward time for Hegseth as Congress is demanding access to unedited footage of the controversial September “double tap” strike that killed two survivors clinging to a capsized boat off Venezuela, with many questioning whether the second hit broke the laws of war.
Hegseth is defending his decision to overhaul access to the Pentagon. Most major news organizations surrendered their press badges rather than sign a 21 page rulebook that limits movement inside the building and effectively confines reporting to official handouts. In their place, the department has welcomed dozens of openly right wing outlets and personalities, including Loomer, a channel tied to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and former congressman Matt Gaetz, now a host at One America News Network.
Critics argue that the move creates an echo chamber where tough questions are less likely to be asked. Loomer’s posts cut against that assumption, at least on this particular issue, by noting the mismatch between the administration’s fentanyl rhetoric and what U.S. and international experts say about how drugs actually move.
