'Textbook War Crime': Critics Slam Pete Hegseth For 'Outright Murder' After Shock Report
Critics are calling out US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth over a stunning new report in the Washington Post that he ordered a US strike force to kill everyone on board a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the Caribbean in September.
When two survivors were seen in the wreckage, commanders launched a second “double tap” strike to kill them, the newspaper reported on Friday.
“The order was to kill everybody,” one source with direct knowledge of the operation told the Post, which said the two survivors were “blown out of the water.”
New York University law professor Ryan Goodman wrote on X that the Post report details a “textbook war crime/extrajudicial killing.”
He wrote in a follow-up post that the administration’s claim to lawmakers that the second strike was to clear debris “seems to be a bold-face falsehood.”
President Donald Trump has justified the strikes by saying they have targeted drug traffickers, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio said they know exactly who is on each boat and what they are carrying.
“We track them from the very beginning. We know who’s on them, who they are, where they’re coming from, what they have on them,” Rubio said last month.
Hegseth on Friday called the Post report “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” and said the “declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists.”
He did not challenge the specifics of the Post report but insisted that the operation is “lawful under both US and international law.”
Critics disagreed, firing back on X:
If true, this is heinous and illegal. You do not kill helpless survivors of a sinking boat. (It enraged us when, for example, the Japanese would machine-gun American survivors in the water.)
— David French (@DavidAFrench) November 28, 2025
You do not kill someone who is hors de combat, and no quarter orders are flatly illegal. https://t.co/lhaL89s650
This would be a war crime even if there were an actual war and these people were actual combatants, which there isn't and they weren't.
— George Conway ⚖️???????? (@gtconway3d) November 28, 2025
It's unquestionably an unlawful homicide under any form of law you wish to apply: military or civilian, domestic or international, federal or… https://t.co/sgJ2VjDijk
If the factual account is correct, how can the second strike be defended?
— Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) November 28, 2025
(You are welcome to assume, if you wish, that the first strike was lawful. FWIW, I'm doubtful that assumption is sound.)
There is plenty of reason to be concerned about the possibility of illegal orders. https://t.co/qRM6uAMmGk
Secretary of War Crimes. https://t.co/OKnp0owB6z
— Justin Amash (@justinamash) November 28, 2025
This appears to be outright murder; an order to kill injured people who were not posing a single threat to anyone. Quite possibly a war crime. https://t.co/MigR1ZVhfdpic.twitter.com/iFy262k9P3
— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@ReichlinMelnick) November 28, 2025
Executing unarmed enemy survivors who pose no threat to U.S. troops is plainly illegal under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So when people ask "What's an example of an illegal order from the Trump administration?," this is an example. pic.twitter.com/v96qSkxLVC
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) November 28, 2025
A war crime, lies, a cover up.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) November 28, 2025
The Trump administration. https://t.co/5CKTT40T7T
This is a clear violation of the DoD’s own Law of War Manual and the Geneva Convention.
— Elaine Luria (@ElaineLuria) November 28, 2025
Congress must act. https://t.co/TVqEgrUq2i
.@SecWar — you will be held accountable for illegal orders you give.
— Congressman Eugene Vindman (@RepVindman) November 29, 2025
This demands Congressional investigation, and the unredacted video of the strike and radio recordings of the orders given need to be shared with Congress and the American people immediately. https://t.co/l0Q2M7XMSg
Article 3 and 12 of the Geneva Convention violations, it is so beyond clear. Southcom’s top lawyer said it was illegal and you overruled him. If you’re so confident, declassify the OLC opinion, and tell us which cartels we’re in an “armed conflict” with. Why hide this info?
— John Jackson (@hissgoescobra) November 28, 2025
.@SecWar gave an illegal order, and all who followed it must be answerable.
— Patrick Jaicomo (@pjaicomo) November 28, 2025
Every member of the gov’t, including the military, has an independent obligation to the Constitution, laws, and his sworn oath.
Since at least 1804, an officer follows illegal orders at his own peril: https://t.co/iKQHaa41oFpic.twitter.com/i3kcPz1QeK
So this is either: felony murder if we are not a war or a war crime if we were at war.
— Douglas Weinstein (@DouglasWei43233) November 28, 2025
As citizens, we are complicit if we don’t call this out. Don’t be the villagers near Aushwitz who “had no idea.” https://t.co/LR6bFzxGyX
“Legally perilous” is a nice way to put it. This is a crime. https://t.co/dxz8GhXq5N
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 28, 2025