Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday forcefully defended U.S. strikes on suspected cartel-operated vessels, insisting President Donald Trump holds full authority to order military force “as he sees fit” to protect the country, despite rising legal and political scrutiny over a lethal Caribbean attack that left survivors in the water.
Speaking at the Reagan National Defense Forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, Hegseth framed the maritime campaign as an extension of Trump’s post-9/11 approach to national security, arguing that alleged drug traffickers transporting narcotics by sea are no different from terrorists targeting Americans. The strikes, launched across the southern Caribbean and Pacific, have killed at least 87 people, including a Thursday attack in the eastern Pacific, according to U.S. officials.
“If you’re working for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you. Let there be no doubt about it,” Hegseth said. He added that Trump “can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation’s interests,” insisting that no foreign government should question America’s resolve.
Hegseth’s remarks come as lawmakers demand answers about a September 2 strike that destroyed a vessel in the Caribbean and led to a disputed second strike on survivors. A classified video shown this week to members of Congress depicted two shirtless, unarmed men clinging to wreckage with no visible communications gear. The scene fueled concerns that U.S. forces may have violated the Defense Department’s Law of War Manual, which prohibits firing on combatants who are incapacitated or shipwrecked and no longer resisting.
Reuters reported that Hegseth told the gathering he “fully supports” the September 2 decision to launch the follow-up strike and would have made the same call himself. Officials in Trump’s administration have said Hegseth did not directly order the second attack, asserting instead that Admiral Frank Bradley, then commanding Joint Special Operations Command, concluded the debris field had to be neutralized because it might still contain cocaine.
Hegseth repeated his account of the day, saying he witnessed the first strike before leaving for another meeting. He declined to say whether the administration would release the full video, calling the matter under review. The September attack was the first of 22 conducted under Trump’s directive to curb drug smuggling through maritime interdiction operations.
The Defense Department’s Law of War Manual explicitly describes attacks on shipwreck survivors as “clearly illegal” if they are no longer hostile or attempting to escape. The questions surrounding the September strike have intensified debate in Washington over the administration’s contention that cartel-linked drug runners constitute armed enemy groups that may be lawfully targeted in wartime.
During his address, Hegseth also championed Trump’s newly unveiled national security strategy, which casts European allies as weakened and calls for reasserting U.S. dominance across the Western Hemisphere. Hegseth argued that Trump is the “true and rightful heir” to Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy, distancing the administration from Republican leaders who supported prolonged wars and nation-building in the Middle East, efforts he described as misguided and ineffective.
Hegseth also reiterated Trump’s vow to resume U.S. nuclear testing to match China and Russia, a position that has alarmed nuclear arms experts given that both Beijing and Moscow have avoided explosive tests for decades. Russia has said it would follow Washington’s lead if the United States resumed testing.
Throughout the speech, Hegseth criticized what he called distractions within the national security establishment, including climate change, interventionism, undefined conflicts and “woke moralizing,” insisting the Pentagon must return to a hardened posture focused solely on direct threats.
The Trump administration has defended its maritime campaign as essential to stopping drugs that kill Americans, while critics warn the strikes may push the United States into legally uncharted territory. As Congress continues reviewing the September video and the broader rules governing the campaign, Hegseth stressed that neither the president nor the Pentagon intends to retreat.
“Let no country on earth doubt for a moment,” he said, “that America will strike decisively when its security is on the line.”
Reuters/AP
