Trump Says He “Wouldn’t Have Wanted” a Reported 2nd Strike on Alleged Drug Boat
Trump Says He "Wouldn't Have Wanted" a Reported 2nd Strike on Alleged Drug Boat
President Donald Trump said he would look into whether the United States carried out a second strike on a boat in the Caribbean that officials say was involved in drug smuggling, while defending Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth against claims he ordered troops to “kill them all” ahead of the operation.
A Nov. 28 Washington Post report, citing anonymous sources, alleged that Hegseth directed military officials to leave no survivors, leading U.S. forces to carry out a follow-on strike that killed two people to fulfill the command.
Hegseth has denied the report, calling it “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory,” and Trump allies have since cast doubt on its accuracy.
“I don’t know anything about it,” Trump told reporters on Nov. 30. “He said he did not say that, and I believe him, 100,” Trump added. “He says he didn’t do it.”
The Trump administration’s lethal strikes on alleged drug boats that the United States says were aimed at deterring Venezuelan traffickers were already facing congressional scrutiny, and after the latest reporting, lawmakers on the Armed Services committees in the House and Senate pledged to provide rigorous oversight of the operation.
Since September, the administration is known to have carried out strikes on at least 21 boats in international waters that killed 83 people. The reported second strike on the suspected drug boat took place on Sept. 2.
Trump could not say on Nov. 30 if a second strike had taken place, telling reporters riding on Air Force One, “I don’t know. I’m going to find out about it. But Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
“We’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” Trump said.
The legality of the ongoing strikes is in dispute. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has said they violate international law, and Democrats in Congress are demanding the Department of Justice release a classified Office of Legal Counsel opinion that reportedly says U.S. military personnel involved in the strikes cannot be prosecuted.
Trump has threatened to escalate the attacks to land strikes on Venezuela and said on Nov. 29 that pilots should consider the airspace over the country closed. He told reporters on Nov. 30 that he’d spoken to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro but did not say what they discussed.
