Trump defends Hegseth over Venezuelan drug boat second strike claims
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President Donald Trump on Sunday defended Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over allegations that he ordered a second attack on a Venezuelan drug ship, saying he believed Hegseth’s denial and would not support a follow-up strike if it occurred.
The exchange occurred during a banter aboard Air Force One, as reporters pressed Trump about Hegseth’s claims that he authorized a second attack that allegedly killed two wounded men after an earlier attack on a suspected drug-smuggling ship.
Trump has repeatedly said Hegseth denied giving such an order. He emphasized that he was aware of the allegation, but Hegseth told him that the allegation was unfounded and he accepted this statement without hesitation.
“He said he didn’t say that, and I believe him 100%,” Trump said.
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President Donald Trump defended Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over allegations that he ordered a second attack on an alleged narcotics ship in the Caribbean on September 2, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Reporters asked Trump whether he would have approved a second strike if Hegseth had ordered one, causing him to once again distance himself from the allegations by emphasizing that he trusted the secretary of war.
Trump said he planned to seek additional information about the reported incident, but reiterated that Hegseth had assured him nothing inappropriate had occurred.
Trump said, “No, I wouldn’t want that. There wouldn’t be a second attack.”
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Secretary of War Pete Hegseth answers a reporter’s question during a roundtable on criminal cartels Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Evan Vucci/AP)
Still, he praised the broader campaign targeting drug smuggling boats and said the attacks had greatly reduced the flow of drugs by sea into the United States in recent months.
Trump argued that the ships posed a lethal threat and framed the operations as necessary to protect Americans, describing the missions as deadly but justified.
“You can see the boats,” he said. “You can see the drugs on the boats, and each boat is responsible for the murder of 25,000 Americans.”
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Video footage showed the ship shortly before it was destroyed. (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)
Trump came to Hegseth’s defense after reports from outlets such as The Washington Post and CNN claimed that the US military had ordered a second attack on a suspected drug ship in the Caribbean on September 2 after two people survived the previous attack.
The commander overseeing that operation told his colleagues in a secure conference call that the survivors were legitimate targets because they could contact other smugglers for help, and ordered the second attack to follow Hegseth’s instructions that everyone should be killed, The Washington Post reported.
“As always, fake news delivers more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory stories to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” Hegseth wrote on X on Friday.
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“As we have said from the beginning and in every statement, these highly effective attacks are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic attacks,'” Hegseth continued. “The declared goal is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every smuggler we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Norman and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report.
