On Sunday night’s gaggle on Air Force One, Trump defended Pete Hegseth, who is getting heat from reports of killing two survivors of a Caribbean boat strike — which lawmakers and military experts are calling an illegal war crime if true.
“I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington. “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.
“I’m going to find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO didn’t mince words. He said an order by Hegseth to wipe out survivors of the boat strike, if true, would be “patently illegal.”
“Every serviceman knows you don’t shoot a captured enemy. You don’t kill (a) wounded enemy, and so forth, if they’re no threat to you,” Clark said.
Clark said he assumed insiders of the attack were “sufficiently disturbed” to share information.
Early in November, Hegseth issued orders for Department of War personnel to seek prior approval before engaging with Congress on any and all “sensitive operations,” including the boat strikes around Latin America.
On Friday Hegseth did not deny the reports but called them fake news. He also doubled down on his intent.
On Sunday night, the Secretary of War posted a joke to social media.