President Donald Trump said the U.S. would start “doing those strikes on land” when speaking about U.S. military operations against alleged drug-carrying boats from Venezuela.
"We're doing these [sea] strikes and we're going to start doing those strikes on land, too, you know, the land is much easier, much easier,” Trump said Tuesday.
His comments come as the Pentagon faces scrutiny over a lethal strike against an alleged drug boat in September.
During Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. has “only just begun striking Narco boats,” amidst growing questions about his role in authorizing the September strike in the Caribbean Sea.
Following an initial strike against the ship, two survivors were spotted, The Washington Post reported. A Joint Special Operations commander overseeing the attack then ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s earlier instructions to “kill everybody,” according to the report.
A Pentagon spokesperson called the narrative “completely false.” Hegseth also defended the action on X without denying whether he ordered officials to “kill everybody” on the boats despite not posing any immediate threat to the U.S.
Hegseth said Tuesday that he “didn’t stick around” for the remainder of the mission following the first strike, and said the admiral in charge had “made the right call” in ordering it, which he “had complete authority to do.”
The White House also defended the Navy admiral on Monday, saying that he acted “within his authority and the law” when he ordered the second strike. The commander, Navy Vice Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.
The actions described in the Post’s report could amount to “war crimes,” some Democratic lawmakers and former military officials have alleged.
Democratic and Republican members of both the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee are pledging “vigorous oversight” of the Pentagon in the wake of the news.
In September, the Trump administration told Congress that the U.S. is formally engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels that Trump has labeled “unlawful combatants.” The White House has said that the actions of these groups “constitute an armed attack against the United States.”
Over the last several months, more than 80 people have been killed in more than a dozen attacks targeting boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean, accused of smuggling drugs into the U.S., though officials have not publicly shared evidence or legal justifications for the strikes, according to lawmakers and civil rights groups.
Last month, members of Congress received closed-door briefings on the attacks from officials who were “unable to provide any credible explanation for its extrajudicial and unauthorized attacks,” Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said.
In a statement, Meeks said the legal justifications were ‘dubious and meant to circumvent Congress’ constitutional power on matters of war and peace.”
In an apparent response to the bombshell Washington Post report, Hegseth shared an AI-generated image of children’s book character Franklin the Turtle firing a rocket launcher from a helicopter.
The AI-produced book cover was titled Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists, with the beloved turtle wearing combat gear and hanging outside a military helicopter while taking aim at three boats below.
“Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity,” a spokesperson for Franklin publisher Kids Can Press told The Independent. “We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.”
With reporting by the Associated Press.
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