A rumor that the U.S. Navy struck a yacht near Venezuela carrying U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas circulated online in November 2025. For example, one Facebook post (archived) from Nov. 1 read:
Navy Accidentally Strikes Superyacht Carrying Clarence Thomas Near Venezuela
Variations of the rumor spread on X (archived) and Threads (archived), as well.
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence of the Navy striking a yacht carrying Thomas near Venezuela. A Google search of the keywords “Clarence Thomas yacht Venezuela” revealed only stories related to the claim; if the Navy had struck Thomas’ yacht reputable news outlets would have reported it.
(Google.com)
Rather, the rumor about Thomas originated with The Borowitz Report (archived) — a site that describes its output as satirical in nature. Its author, Andy Borowitz, wrote on its About page:
I’ve been writing satirical news since I was eighteen. This represents either commitment to a genre or arrested development.
The New Yorker featured The Borowitz Report as a column for 25 years. Borowitz announced in 2023 that the magazine dropped his column for financial reasons. Borowitz then returned to publishing his satirical stories on his own website and social media pages.
The fictional story about the Navy striking Thomas’ yacht spread as the U.S. government ordered strikes on boats carrying what U.S. President Donald Trump described as “narcoterrorists” with connections to the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua, the country of Venezuela or Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Thomas landed in hot water in 2023 when a ProPublica investigation revealed he had taken undisclosed trips on a billionaire Republican donor’s yacht.
Snopes has addressed similar stories stemming from The Borowitz Report in the past, including the satirical claim that Trump’s birthday parade was canceled over a missing birth certificate and a rumor that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth drunkenly crashed a tank into the Pentagon.
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.
