DECEMBER 1, 2025
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. – Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The White House said Monday that the U.S. military conducted two strikes on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean in September, deepening questions about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in an operation that led to the killing of two survivors.
Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the head of Special Operations Command, was acting legally under authority to use lethal force granted by Hegseth in conducting the attacks on the boat, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The White House defense of Hegseth followed a report Friday in the Washington Post that he gave a spoken order to “kill them all” aboard the vessel. The first strike killed all but two of the boat’s 11 occupants before Bradley ordered a second missile strike, which killed the men, according to the Post.
A Defense Department official on Monday provided a similar account to The Wall Street Journal and said Hegseth was the “target engagement authority,” the key figure who authorized the strike.
President Trump said Sunday that Hegseth told him that he didn’t issue an order to kill all the people on board.
“Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump told reporters during a flight to Washington from Florida. “And I believe him.” But Trump later added “I wouldn’t have wanted that” in response to questions about whether he favored targeting survivors.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. – jim lo scalzo/epa/Shutterstock
On Monday evening, Hegseth wrote a social-media post that said that the Sept. 2 attacks were Bradley’s decisions.
“Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support,” Hegseth wrote. “I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made—on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
Leavitt said in a statement read to reporters at the White House that Bradley had directed the attacks: “On Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,” she said. “Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed, and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
A day after the strike, Hegseth said that he had monitored it as it occurred and expressed no misgivings on how it had been carried out.
“I watched the strike live,” he said in a Sept. 3 appearance on Fox & Friends, according to a transcript of the broadcast. “We knew exactly who it was, exactly what they were doing, exactly where they were going, what they were involved in.”
Brian Finucane, a former legal adviser to the State Department during the Obama administration and first Trump administration, said an order to give no quarter to the targets of an attack would violate Defense Department rules on use of force. The Pentagon’s law of war manual also bars attacks on shipwrecks where alleged combatants are unable to fight, Finucane said.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top-ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Congress was probing the episode and Bradley was expected this week to brief the chairs and ranking members of the Senate and House armed services committees in a classified session.
“We want to know what happened, what are the orders, what are the rules of engagement, how does this fit with the legality, and we want to go up the chain of command,” Smith said. “Secretary Hegseth made a big point of saying he was running these operations, so ultimately he’s the one who ought to come in and explain it to us.”
Lawmakers from both parties expressed concern over the attack. “If there is a second strike and everything, that seems way over the edge to me,” said Sen. Jim Justice (R., W., Va.). “I don’t see how that is acceptable, to tell you the truth.”
Sen. Roger Wicker, the Mississippi Republican who chairs the Armed Services Committee, said Monday night that he is planning “vigorous oversight” of those allegations.
“Secretary Hegseth loves to look tough,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a speech on the Senate floor Monday. “He loves to boast about the lethality of our forces. He wants to be taken seriously, but yesterday he posted a ridiculous tweet of a cartoon turtle firing on alleged drug traffickers—a sick parody of a well-known children’s book.”
Pete Hegseth summoned senior military leaders for a Sept. 30 address at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va. – Andrew Harnik/AP
Even before Hegseth’s role in the September attack became public, there was debate about the legality of the boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, which have killed more than 80 people.
The White House has said that it is targeting “narco-terrorists” and that military force is lawful under Trump’s authority as commander in chief. Some lawmakers and former military legal officers say that the strikes are illegal because the targets are civilians who are smuggling drugs internationally for profit—not an enemy group seeking to attack the U.S.
Pentagon representatives didn’t respond Monday to requests for comment.
Hegseth responded Sunday to criticism of the strikes in a social-media message in which he showed the cartoon character Franklin the Turtle blasting boats operated by “Narco Terrorists.” The post was labeled “For your Christmas wish list…”
The debate over the strikes is the latest controversy to engulf Hegseth, who in February fired the top lawyers for the military services saying they were not “well suited” and could be potential “roadblocks” to orders “given by a commander in chief.” Critics said the action would remove lawyers experienced in applying the law of war whose role was to provide independent legal advice on the use of force on the battlefield.
Hegseth stirred more debate in September when he summoned top military commanders to a Marine base at Quantico, Virginia for a speech in which he argued that the military should not be bound by “politically correct” rules of engagement.
“We’re training warriors, not defenders,” he said. “We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country.”
Courtesy/Source: WSJ
