Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been widely condemned for brushing aside allegations that he committed a potential war crime by posting a cringeworthy meme of a children’s book.
Hegseth has been accused of ordering the military to “kill everybody” after two survivors of an alleged Venezuelan drug boat were seen clinging to a destroyed vessel that had been targeted in a U.S.-led airstrike in the Caribbean in September, according to The Washington Post.
As outrage mounted over the weekend about the second missile strike—which experts said could amount to an unjustified “murder” of people who posed no threat to the U.S.—Hegseth shared a fake cover from the children’s book series Franklin, showing the cartoon turtle firing an RPG at what appeared to be a drug boat. The doctored cover was titled Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.
Hegseth, who wants to be addressed by his preferred moniker “Secretary of War,” posted the image with the caption: “For your Christmas list…”
The former Fox News host has been widely attacked online for the glib, wannabe–edgelord-style joke. Many X users have posted their own version of a Franklin book to suggest Hegseth is a “war criminal” who should face trial at The Hague.
Others were more direct. Former GOP Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger called Hegseth a “sick man.” Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who is running for Senate, wrote that Hegseth is a “disgrace,” while Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego added: “South Park is spot-on about you.”
Sarah Longwell, founder of The Bulwark, posted on X: “Are we going to be a country that lets a person meme and s–tpost his way out of accountability for alleged war crimes, or do some things still matter?”
David Corn, Mother Jones’ Washington bureau chief and an MSNBC analyst, wrote: “Joking about serious allegations of illegal attacks and war crimes is quite crass, but such a wonderful encapsulation of Trump 2.0.”
Ruth Deyermond, a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London, added: “Why would the U.S.’s allies or its enemies take the U.S. seriously when this is its leadership? I can’t think of any previous great power that’s wrecked its influence this fast and this comprehensively. Incredible to see.”
Hegseth is accused of ordering a potentially illegal second strike on an alleged drug boat that killed 11 people, the first such attack as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against “narco terrorists” said to threaten U.S. security.
After the initial strike hit the boat in international waters, military commanders reportedly saw two survivors clinging to the wreckage via a livestream. Hegseth is then said to have given a directive, and “the order was to kill everybody,” a source told the Post.
Todd Huntley, a former military lawyer and now director of the National Security Law Program at Georgetown Law, said launching a second strike to kill the two survivors may amount to “murder.” Even if the U.S. was officially at war with drug traffickers, ordering their deaths “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime.”
Hegseth denied the Post’s reporting, saying “the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting.”
Speaking aboard Air Force One on Sunday, President Donald Trump backed Hegseth and claimed “he did not order the death of those two men.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
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