Donald Trump has insisted he would not have wanted the second “kill everybody” strike Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly ordered on a Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean.
Hegseth had reportedly ordered the follow-up strike to wipe out two survivors of an initial U.S. missile attack on the boat, as reported by The Washington Post on Thursday.
The publication cited two sources who said Hegseth’s spoken directive was “kill everybody,” referring to two people clinging onto the vessel.
In a press gaggle on Air Force One on Sunday, President Trump was overly supportive of Hegseth except for the idea of ordering a second strike.
When asked by a reporter if he believed a possible second strike would be legal, Trump said, “Number one, I don’t know that that happened. And Pete said he did not want them… he didn’t even know what people were talking about. So we’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike.”
He added, “The first strike was very lethal, it was fine, and if there were two people around… but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in him.”
When asked to clarify if he was saying there was no second strike on the boat after his broken answer, Trump said, “I don’t know. I’m going find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
The 79-year-old said he had “very little” concern about how Hegseth’s team has carried out the fatal boat strikes.
“Because you can see the boats, you can see the drugs in the boats and every boat is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans,” Trump said, referencing the alleged drugs onboard.
Hegseth played the “fake news” card on Saturday to attempt to discredit the Post’s story, calling the report “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory.”
The former Fox News host said the attacks were “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,” he wrote on X, saying the Biden administration had taken “the kid gloves” approach to dealing with them.
“The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”
Earlier on the flight from his Thanksgiving holiday in Florida back to Washington, Trump was directly asked about the Post’s “kill everyone” claims surrounding Hegseth.
“I don’t know anything about it, he said he did not say that and I believe him 100 percent,” the president stated.
When a reporter challenged Trump by asking if he would be “okay” if Hegseth had ordered the second strike, the president again backed the defense secretary. “He said he didn’t do it, so I don’t have to make that decision.”
The Post’s story, citing two people familiar with the matter, claimed two people had been left clinging to the burning deck of a boat destroyed by a U.S. rocket launched off the coast of Trinidad on September 2. A second missile reportedly hit the boat to kill the remaining survivors.
Former military lawyer Todd Huntley, director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law, told the Post that killing any of the people on the boat “amounts to murder.”
A report on CNN, citing an unnamed source, said it was not clear whether Hegseth knew there were survivors ahead of ordering the second strike.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the “entire narrative is completely false.”
Meanwhile, White House Director of Communications Steven Cheung dutifully backed up Hegseth on Sunday, posting on X “The Washington Compost provided NO FACTS and NO SUBSTANTIATION.”
He continued, “They literally just printed what some unnamed random person said and reported it as fact. This is the same playbook they used during the first term. The difference is that nobody trusts outlets like WaPo anymore.”
The Washington Compost provided NO FACTS and NO SUBSTANTIATION. They literally just printed what some unnamed random person said and reported it as fact.
This is the same playbook they used during the first term. The difference is that nobody trusts outlets like WaPo anymore. https://t.co/MPWG0DLEa3— Steven Cheung (@StevenCheung47) November 30, 2025
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