The Trump administration is coming under increased scrutiny over senior officials’ shifting explanations for the actions surrounding two September strikes by U.S. forces on a boat that was allegedly smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea.
The Washington Post reported Friday that after an initial strike, the boat appeared to have been disabled, and some crew members were killed. But when two survivors were identified, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack ordered a second strike to comply with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s spoken directive before the first strike to kill everybody. The Pentagon has said 11 crew members were killed.
The initial strike, which President Donald Trump announced on Sept. 2., served as the opening salvo in the administration’s ongoing war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere. But questions have been raised about why the second strike had not been disclosed, and current and former U.S. officials and some military experts have said that the Pentagon’s lethal campaign — which has killed more than 80 people — is unlawful and may expose those most directly involved to future prosecution.
Here’s a look at the administration’s evolving responses about the attack:
Trump: Military ‘literally shot out a boat’ from Venezuela
Trump told reporters during a Sept. 2 White House event that earlier that day U.S. forces had “literally shot out a boat” from Venezuela that he claimed was carrying drugs. He also wroteon Truth Social that the strike by U.S. forces took place earlier that morning and killed 11 alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The post included a video showing one strike on the boat.
Trump suggested in the post that the boat had been headed for the United States. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that day that the boat was “probably headed to Trinidad or some other country in the Caribbean.”
Hegseth says he ‘watched it live’
Rubio told reporters in Mexico City on Sept. 3 that instead of interdicting the boat, “on the president’s orders, we blew it up — and it’ll happen again.” When asked if they warned the crew before the attack, Rubio said that the vessel, like others suspected of carrying drugs, posed an “immediate threat to the United States,” and that gave the country the right to destroy it.
Hegseth told “Fox & Friends” that same day that he “watched it live.”
“We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented — and that was Tren de Aragua, a narco-terrorist organization designated by the United States, trying to poison our country with illicit drugs,” Hegseth said. “ … And so those 11 drug traffickers are no longer with us, sending a very clear signal that this is an activity the United States is not going to tolerate in our hemisphere.”
Hegseth did not disclose at the time what aircraft were used for the attack, but added, “I can tell you it was precision. It was very well understood exactly what assets would be used in order to achieve the effect.”
Pentagon spokesman: ‘This entire narrative is completely false’
The Post reported Friday that a live drone feed of the Sept. 2 operation showed two survivors from an original crew of 11 clinging to the wreckage of their boat after the initial missile attack.
To comply with the spoken order from Hegseth, which The Post reported was given on a secure conference call before the first missile strike, Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, the Special Operations commander overseeing the mission, ordered the second strike which killed the two survivors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. Those people, along with five others in the original Post report, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter’s sensitivity.
Bradley told people on the secure conference call that the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo, according to two people.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declined to address questions about Hegseth’s order and other details of the operation, including Special Operations involvement. “This entire narrative is completely false,” he said in a statement. “Ongoing operations to dismantle narcoterrorism and to protect the Homeland from deadly drugs have been a resounding success.”
After the publication of The Post’s report, Hegseth wrote on X that “these highly effective strikes are designed to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes,’” adding: “Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.” He claimed that the military operations in the Caribbean are “lawful” and denounced “the fake news.”
Trump says Hegseth told him he ‘did not’ give spoken order
Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday evening that he has “great confidence” that Hegseth did not give a spoken order to kill all crew members aboard the vessel.
Trump said that he would look into the issue and that Hegseth told him “he did not say that, and I believe him, 100 percent.”
“I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine,” Trump added.
‘Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes,’ White House press secretary says
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that there was a second strike on the boat targeted on Sept. 2, but she denied that it was done at Hegseth’s request.
Leavitt said it was “true” that the administration denies that Hegseth gave the order, instead pointing to Bradley as being authorized to conduct the strikes.
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war,” Leavitt said. “With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Admiral Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated.”
Hegseth wrote on social media that he stood by the admiral “and the combat decisions he has made — on the Sept. 2 mission and all others since.”
Hegseth: ‘I watched that first strike live,’ says he didn’t stick around for the second
Hegseth said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday alongside Trump that on Sept. 2, he watched the first boat strike live but had moved on to his next meeting before the second hit. He told reporters that he learned about the second strike hours later, defending what he characterized as Bradley’s decision to “sink the boat and eliminate the threat.”
“I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said.
He added that the Defense Department has “a lot of things to do. So I didn’t stick around for the hour, two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting.”
Bradley, Hegseth said, “made the right call” by ordering the second strike, adding that he “had complete authority to do” so.
Hegseth said he did not see any survivors in the water following the first strike, saying the boat “exploded in fire, smoke, you can’t see anything. … This is called the fog of war.”
In the meeting, Trump said he did not know about the second strike.
“I didn’t know about the second strike,” Trump said. “I didn’t know anything about people. I wasn’t involved, and I knew they took out a boat.”
“To me, it was an attack. It wasn’t one strike, two strikes, three strikes,” Trump added.
Trump: ‘I support the decision to knock out … whoever’s piloting those boats’
On Wednesday, the president did not directly address a question about whether Hegseth or Bradley should be punished if the congressional probes conclude that the attacks targeted the two survivors.
“I think you’re going to find that there’s a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they’re doing, taking out those boats. And very soon we’re going to start doing it on land, too,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Pressed on whether he supports the decision to kill survivors after the first strike, Trump said, “No, I support the decision to knock out the boats and whoever’s piloting those boats. Most of them are gone. But whoever [is] piloting those boats, they’re guilty of trying to kill people in our country.”
Alex Horton, Ellen Nakashima, Tara Copp, John Hudson, Samantha Schmidt, Mariana Alfaro and Noah Robertson contributed to this report.
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