What Trump and Hegseth said after the September 2 attack on a suspected drug vessel

When President Donald Trump and defense officials revealed on Sept. 2 that the U.S. military killed 11 suspected drug traffickers on a ship in the Caribbean Sea, they touted it as a success in their war against South American cartels.

Their initial comments were met with scrutiny due to the lack of details they provided. More questions arose months later after it was reported that survivors of the attack were killed in a subsequent attack. The White House confirmed that there was more than one hit against the ship.

Trump first announced the attack on his social media site as a “kinetic attack against positively identified Aragua Train narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of ​​responsibility.”

The post included a video of the strike that showed only one punch.

Trump alleged that the ship was under the control of Venezuelan President Nicolás Madruo. Maduro denied the accusations and criticized the United States for the attack.

Trump said a day later that there was a “huge” amount of drugs on the ship, but provided few details.

“These were massive amounts of drugs that came into our country to kill a lot of people. And everyone perfectly understands that fact. You see it, you see the bags of drugs all over the ship, and they were hit,” Trump told reporters at the White House on September 3. “When they see that tape, they’ll say, ‘Let’s not do this.'”

That same day, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also touted the attack during a “Fox & Friends” and refuted a Maduro spokesperson’s suggestion that the video was generated by AI.

“That was definitely not artificial intelligence. I saw it live,” he said. “We knew exactly who was on that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing and we knew exactly who they represented.”

The administration would go on to report 20 more attacks on ships in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, which killed 83 people.

Hegseth spoke about the U.S. operation Oct. 23 at a White House event on combating drug cartels, arguing that the suspects on the ships would be treated “like foreign terrorist organizations on the offensive.”

“So the War Department is not going to demote him, nor simply arrest him. We are going to defeat and destroy these terrorist organizations to defend the homeland on behalf of the American people,” he said.

His comments came a week after reports of survivors following an attack on a ship in the Caribbean. The survivors were eventually released to their home countries of Colombia and Ecuador, preventing them from protesting their detention in a US court.

When asked by ABC News’ Mary Bruce how survivors would be treated in the future, Hegseth responded, “We have a protocol for how we’re going to handle it,” but did not go into detail.

At the same event, Trump told reporters that he did not plan to ask Congress for authority or declare war on the cartels, instead stating bluntly: “We’re just going to kill the people who are bringing drugs into our country.”

However, new questions arose about the legality of the attacks after a November 28 Washington Post article. report which alleged that the first attack on September 2 initially left two survivors clinging to the rubble.

The Post report, which cited “two people with direct knowledge of the operation,” alleged that Adm. Mitch Bradley, then head of the Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a second strike to carry out Hegseth’s initial orders and ensure that survivors could not call on other suspected smugglers to recover them and their cargo.

Members of Congress from both parties had expressed concern about the drug cartel operation, but in the days after the Post report, Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate armed services committees issued joint statements saying they were investigating the incident.

Hegseth rejected the Post report, saying in an X publication that the strikes were legal.

ABC News has confirmed that survivors of the initial attack died as a result.

Trump told reporters on Sunday that he did not know the details of the Washington Post report and defended Hegeseth.

“He said he didn’t say that, and I believe him,” Trump said when asked about the report and Hegseth’s alleged order.

Trump added that he would not have wanted a second attack.

“I wouldn’t have wanted that. Not a second attack. The first attack was very lethal. It was fine, and if there were two people around, but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence,” he said.

On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified that Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley gave the order for the second strike, but did not provide further details.

The next day, Hegseth redoubled the administration’s efforts to target suspected drug boats.

“We have only just begun attacking narco ships and sending narco terrorists to the bottom of the ocean because they have been poisoning the American people,” he said at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.

Hegseth also clarified his previous comments about watching the attack live.

“As you can imagine, we at the War Department have a lot of things to do. So I didn’t stay for an hour or two hours, whatever, where all the exploitation of sensitive sites happens digitally,” he said. “So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I found out that the commander had done… which he had complete authority to do.”

“Admiral Bradley made the right decision to finally sinks the boat and eliminate the threat. he sank the ship, sank the ship, and removed the threat. AND It was the right decision. We support him,” Hegseth added.

Hegseth said he did not see any survivors while watching the video.

“I did not personally see the survivors, but stop — because that The thing was on fire. He was exploded and fire and smoke, you can’t see anything. “If you have digital, there is… This is called the ‘fog of war.'”

“I personally didn’t see any survivors… because that thing was on fire and exploded,” he said. “Fire, smoke, nothing can be seen; this is called ‘fog of war’.”