President Donald Trump on Sunday evening weighed in on the controversy surrounding Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and allegations that Hegseth ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan boat to ensure there were no survivors.
“He said he didn’t do it, so I don’t have to make that decision,” Trump told reporters when asked about the report. Pressed again on whether a second strike would have been legal, Trump added, “I wouldn’t have wanted that — a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine.”
Why It Matters
Hegseth has defended U.S. strikes on boats in the Caribbean as lawful after The Washington Post reported that he instructed military officials to leave “no survivors” during a September operation targeting an alleged drug-smuggling vessel.
In a post on X, Hegseth insisted that the ongoing missions are “lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict—and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
Sean Parnell, Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, also pushed back on the reporting in his own message on X, saying he had told The Washington Post that “this entire narrative was false yesterday. These people just fabricate anonymously sourced stories out of whole cloth. Fake News is the enemy of the people.”
What To Know
Trump spoke with reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington, D.C., from Florida, where he spent the Thanksgiving weekend and held talks with Ukrainian officials while the U.S. continues efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
Reporters, however, focused on the domestic fallout from the reporting that Hegseth had allegedly ordered “no survivors” in strikes on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.
Trump said he didn’t “know anything about it,” but emphasized that Hegseth had assured him “he did not say that.”
“Pete said he did not order the death of those men,” Trump said when asked again about the alleged second strike on the boat, sidestepping a direct answer on whether he would have approved of such an order if it had been given.
Trump added that he would “look into it,” but he also defended the broader mission, saying he had “great confidence” in Hegseth and claiming that drug deliveries by sea have become “infinitesimal” compared to prior levels. He further asserted that drugs were visible on the boats before the strikes, which he said justified their destruction.
The president also tried to play down concerns sparked by his message that the airspace “above and surrounding” Venezuela should be treated as “closed in its entirety,” a statement that raised fears of a sharp escalation in U.S. military posture toward the South American country.
“We consider Venezuela to be not a very friendly country,” Trump said, pointing to the large number of migrants leaving Venezuela for the United States and accusing many of them of being criminals and gang members who have spread throughout the country.
Asked whether an airstrike on Venezuela itself was imminent, Trump brushed off the idea, saying, “Don’t read anything into it.”
What People Are Saying
President Donald Trump, in a message posted across social media last week:
“To all Airlines, Pilots, Drug Dealers, and Human Traffickers, please consider THE AIRSPACE ABOVE AND SURROUNDING VENEZUELA TO BE CLOSED IN ITS ENTIRETY. Thank you for your attention to this matter! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP”
Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, wrote on X:
“The time to stop the Trump administration from dragging us into war with Venezuela is not after the bombs start falling. It’s right now. If Congress doesn’t do its job, we accept the role Trump is relegating us to: Constitutional afterthought.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X last week, in part:
“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland. As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
