US justice department memo about boat strikes diverges from Trump narrative

Exclusive: Officials frame strikes as self-defense against violence, without naming aggressor, while Trump claims they're to stop US overdose deaths

The Trump administration is framing its boat strikes against drug cartels in the Caribbean in part as a collective self-defense effort on behalf of US allies in the region, according to three people directly familiar with the administration's internal legal argument.

The legal analysis rests on a premise - for which there is no immediate public evidence - that the cartels are waging armed violence against the security forces of allies like Mexico, and that the violence is financed by cocaine shipments.