Pete Hegseth authorized second strike on drug boat, White House confirms

https://thehill.com/homenews/5628447-defense-secretary-authorizes-drug-boat-strike/

47 comments

  2. So what’s the plan here? Throw him under the bus for Trump?

  4. Committing war crimes in order to start a war that is being justified by blaming drugs WHILE Trump pardons a guy convicted of smuggling drugs.

    The lawlessness really has no limit.

  5. I guess that military guy was like lol you aren’t scapegoating me guys I’m obv gonna describe the chain of events and it started at heg.

  6. So Pete’s an admiral now? Or are they changing their story every few minutes after they get a new legal opinion on just how much shit they’re actually in?

  9. Its a bold strategy Cotton, lets see if it…

    Yeah he’s going to get away with it. Republicans aren’t going to do anything, or actively going to stop anything from happening to him.

  10. American politics has officially entered the ‘what now?’ Speedrun category.

  12. Proof they are narco-terrorists please…. I’m here for the fallout from this and can’t wait to see the scramble.

  14. Remember, this act was so illegal, it’s literally listed as THE EXAMPLE of a “clearly illegal order”

    DoD Law of War Manual:

    18.3.2.1 Clearly Illegal Orders to Commit Law of War Violations. The
    requirement to refuse to comply with orders to commit law of war violations applies to orders to
    perform conduct that is clearly illegal or orders that the subordinate knows, in fact, are illegal. For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.

  15. Which they denied right up until something came out that they knew they couldn’t deny. I wonder what it was.

  16. Next: patel. Later: rfk. Soon or later: bondi. plausible: rubio.

    We talk about a safari bus here.

  18. Shut this clown DOWN.

    Him and KashApp are going to be made the sacrificial lambs.

  20. This is a different interpretation of what the WH said. The NY Times says the WH is claiming Hegseth authorized the lethal strike but was not contacted about the survivors on the boat.

    The decision for the second strike was made by the Special Operations Commander, according to the WH. That’s who Pete is throwing under the bus.

    [https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/us/hegseth-drug-boat-strike-order-venezuela.html](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/01/us/hegseth-drug-boat-strike-order-venezuela.html)

  21. So my guess is military brass were threatening one giant fucking response if they didn’t take back the admiral comment.

    This is a good day.

  22. I fear the only person that is going to face prison time or any sort of repercussions is the navy admiral that decided to step down because he knew what was coming he gonna be the one thrown under the bus him and anybody else except the actual people responsible.

  23. You knew this was coming when Trump said to the press he didn’t know anything about it.

    That’s the tell.

  24. Are we all forgetting that Trump came right out and stated this in public?

    “I don’t think we’re necessarily going to ask for a declaration of war. I think we’re just gonna kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. We’re going to kill them. They’re going to be, like, dead,” Trump said

  25. Gearing up to throw Hegeseth under the bus and possible court martials for the officers that carried it out… “Just following orders” is, historically speaking, not a good defense.

  29. Senator Kelly completely vindicated! (not that there was ever anything wrong with reminding people about their oaths in the first place)

  30. Dishonorable discharge for all people indirectly involved. Ship personnel, crew, etc ( idk navy lingo) people directly involved like admirals and upper leadership, drone operator, whoever physically pulled the trigger, need a prison sentence.

  33. So, the way this plays out is that Hegseth gets charged, trump doesn’t. Then trump just pardons Hegseth and they all just go about their business of fascism.

  34. Admiral knows a legal order from an illegal one. Both got some explaining to do and convince the world that they are not war criminals.

  37. These extrajudicial bombings were never about combatting drug smuggling or whatever talking point the Trump administration has concocted to justify its savageries and war crimes. This has always been about toppling the Maduro regime and providing a rationale for military interventionism in “enemy” countries south of the border.

    At least Trump says the quiet part out loud now, agreeing that “Maduro’s days are numbered” in that recent 60 Minutes interview.

    But why not take it a step further and admit that you don’t care about the thousands of Americans dying of drug overdoses, or the addiction crisis. Because after all, your administration has been dismantling and defunding the agencies, programs and community support structures in place that are designed to monitor, manage and address these issues.

    In fact, none of Trump’s policies confront the underlying, root causes of our nation’s problems.

    These extrajudicial killings and war crimes aren’t being executed out of some sense of patriotic duty or sympathy for Americans, they’re being carried out so Trump and his “Department of War” can make the case for military escalation, foreign conflict and regime change.

    Trump has an incompetent loyalist in Hegseth who is eager to support him in committing what can only be described as crimes against humanity because these strikes go beyond the scope of the president’s authority and because they’re being conducted without legal justification or evidence of any crime warranting these public slayings.

    I have no doubt in my mind that when the prosecutions come, Trump will throw Hegseth and anyone else he can under the bus.

    Interventionism and expansionism are justified strategies when it suits the Trump administration’s political goals and/or narratives. Trump is openly engaging in war crimes; threatening our allies; currying favor with dictators; instigating trade wars; and unilaterally intervening in foreign affairs.

    Let’s not forget that within his first few weeks in office, Trump threatened to annex Canada, colonize Greenland and seize international trade routes under the notion that he has the absolute authority to do so.

    And this doesn’t even begin to address Trump’s failures at home.

    Trump and his allies claim they are on a mission to “reduce crime,” but his administration’s “law and order” rhetoric is rife with thinly veiled dog whistles meant to incite hostilities towards immigrants, marginalized groups and minorities. To Trump and his coalition of jingoists, “law and order” means punishing your enemies.

    This obsession with crime and punishment is reflected in Trump’s militarization of domestic policy, in his admin’s disregard for people’s constitutional rights, in Trump’s attacks and threats aimed at judges and law firms, in his unjustified prosecutions of his political opponents, in his weaponization of the DOJ, and in his deputizing of masked ICE agents who are terrorizing the public.

    Trump has even stated that he is above the law; posting comments like, “He who saves his country does not violate any law,” a quote often attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte that basically insinuates that Trump is entitled to operate outside all laws and regulations, international or otherwise, whenever he sees fit.

    Trump believes and insists that he can act with impunity, even when it comes to the lethal actions that he is unilaterally authorizing outside the US.

    These are actions with little to no oversight, and the targets of these strikes need only fit a vague description.

    Trump and his cronies have given themselves the authority to dictate who meets their own dubious criteria of a drug smuggling criminal or “terrorist,” which means they have no obligation to provide the proof that would ordinarily be needed to orchestrate or at least justify these strikes.

    And Trump is freely overseeing these summary executions because he has the full and unconditional backing of a cabinet, a DOD director and Republicans in Congress who all continue to enable his every unconstitutional whim and go to great lengths to cover up his crimes.

  39. White House confirms Secretary of Defense committed war crime

  40. I don’t care what the White House is saying how do the news outlets not feel embarrassed when they say “Drug Boat” that shit was a Drug Boat for chickens. Or hear me out. A fishing vessel

  41. 1. It’s a war crime. 2. There’s no actual presented evidence that it’s a “drug boat” beyond the White House’s notoriously wild claims. It’s no more to be believed a drug boat than it is to believe that Chicago and Portland are on fire. I’m sitting in a sports bar right now in h Chicago and there are not, in fact purple haired Molotov wielding antifa combating with ICE in the streets

  43. shooting shipwrecked survivors is the literal textbook definition of an illegal order.

    *DoD Law of War Manual Section* [*18.3.2.1*](http://18.3.2.1)

    The requirement to refuse to comply with orders to commit law of war violations applies to orders to perform conduct that is clearly illegal or orders that the subordinate knows, in fact, are illegal. **For example, orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal.**

  44. This is a shit article because it does not immediately clarify that what the press secretary says about “in accordance with the laws of war” is *patently false*. Firing on the shipwrecked is a *textbook example*, from the Department of War’s own publications, of an illegal order. These are extrajudicial executions of civilians. Giving no quarter is a war crime under both domestic and international law. Period.

  45. But I just read the White House said it was a general. 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

    So they figured out the lie wouldn’t work?

  46. I honestly doubt Hegseth knew they were war crimes when he was giving the orders. He is unqualified and is in way over his head and is not a serious person. If we are indeed going to war, for whatever reason, having Hegseth lead our military into battle would be a huge mistake.

  47. Weren’t they just trying to throw an admiral under the bus for authorizing the second strike a bit earlier today?

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