Donald Trump is distancing himself from Pete Hegseth’s alleged ‘kill them all order,’ stating that he “wouldn’t have wanted” a second missile strike on survivors, but at the same time, he’s standing by the Defense Secretary and criticizing the media reports that fueled talk of possible war crimes in Washington.
The controversy centers on a September 2 operation in which a U.S. strike destroyed a speedboat near Venezuela that American officials said was ferrying drugs. According to a bombshell Washington Post report, Hegseth allegedly gave a spoken directive ahead of the mission to “kill everybody,” and a follow-up strike was launched to wipe out two survivors who were seen clinging to the wreckage. Two people familiar with the operation told the paper that “the order was to kill everybody,” referring to the people left alive on the destroyed vessel.
According to legal experts, intentionally targeting wounded or shipwrecked survivors would clearly break international human rights laws, and some critics are already calling the reported second strike a “textbook war crime.” Lawmakers from both parties are demanding investigations and have pledged tough oversight of the boat strike campaign, which has killed more than 80 people across the Caribbean and eastern Pacific since September.
Trump, however, is standing by Hegseth while carefully distancing himself from the most explosive allegation.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the president 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.”
talking to reporters last night, Trump claimed of Hegseth’s double tap strike that “I don’t know anything about it,” then moments later claimed “I don’t who you’re talking about” when asked his plan to pardon the former Honduran president pic.twitter.com/eDikG4xhhG
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 1, 2025
Pressed again on whether he believed a second strike actually occurred, Trump offered another muddled defense. “I don’t know. I’m going find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” he said, before stressing that he believes Hegseth’s denials. In a separate exchange, Trump flatly declared, “I don’t know anything about it. He said he did not say that, and I believe him, 100 percent.”
While Trump is dealing with the political fallout, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has hit back at the allegations. He has dismissed the Washington Post’s account as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory,” calling the story “fake news” and maintaining that the operations in the Caribbean are legal. Pentagon officials have also criticized the report’s sources but haven’t provided their own detailed version of what happened.
Trump, meanwhile, made clear he has “very little” concern about how Hegseth’s team has carried out the fatal boat missions. “Because you can see the boats, you can see the drugs in the boats and every boat is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans,” he said, arguing that the strikes are a necessary tool in his administration’s effort to project toughness against “narco-terrorists” in the region.
Human rights groups and international law experts are not convinced. They point out that even if the people on board were involved in drug trafficking, they would still be protected once incapacitated or shipwrecked, and that U.S. officials have not publicly produced evidence backing their claims about cartel or terrorist ties. The U.N. human rights chief has said there is “strong evidence” the boat strikes amount to “extrajudicial” killings and urged Washington to investigate.
