The publisher of the Franklin the Turtle books condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the beloved children’s character in a meme making light of his department’s deadly strikes on boats in the Caribbean.
Hegseth, 45, was widely criticized Monday for shrugging off reports that he ordered the military to “kill everybody” aboard one of the alleged drug boats—including two survivors clinging to the destroyed vessel—by posting a meme of Franklin wearing military fatigues and firing a rocket launcher at drug-smuggling boats.
Now, Franklin’s publisher has also weighed in.
“Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity,” Kids Can Press wrote in a post on X. “We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image which directly contradicts these values.”
The statement did not name Hegseth or the U.S. military but left little doubt that it was referring to the defense secretary’s post, which showed a fake mock-up of a “Classic Franklin Story” book titled, Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.”
In the image, Franklin is smiling while an explosion erupts on one of the boats.
“For your Christmas wish list…” Hegseth captioned the Sunday night post.
Canadian author and former journalist Paulette Bourgeois created the Franklin series in 1986 when she was pregnant with her first child.
The franchise now includes dozens of books, a cartoon TV series that aired from 1997 to 2006, and animated films including Back to School With Franklin and Franklin’s Magic Christmas. Bourgeois and illustrator Brenda Clark are both members of the Order of Canada.
Democrats and Republicans alike blasted Hegseth, who calls himself the “secretary of war,” for using Franklin to “s–tpost his way out of accountability for alleged war crimes,” as The Bulwark’s founder Sarah Longwell put it.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that the former Fox News host had ordered Special Operations commander Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley to “kill everyone” in a small boat off the coast of Venezuela on Sept. 2.
After the first strike left two survivors clinging to the burning wreckage, Bradley ordered a second strike that killed the survivors.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the “entire narrative is completely false.”
But over the weekend, former military lawyer Todd Huntley, director of the national security law program at Georgetown Law, told CNN that a decision to kill all the boat’s helpless passengers “would in essence be an order to show no quarter, which would be a war crime.”
Hegseth initially doubled down on the strikes, saying they were “specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes,’” before trying on Monday to shift the blame for the killings onto Bradley.
The Sept. 2 strike was the first of a military campaign against alleged narco-traffickers that has hit at least 22 boats and killed 82 people.
President Donald Trump and his aides have claimed the U.S. is in “armed conflict” with the narcos, though legal experts writing for Just Security have argued that the strikes violate the War Powers Resolution.
In any case, the military has not provided the public with evidence that the people who were killed were traffickers.
Following news about the alleged order to show no quarter, the House and Senate Armed Services committees have vowed to conduct bipartisan oversight of the entire operation.
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