President Donald Trump said Wednesday he would release any video the government has of the Sept. 2 attack on a suspected drug ship in the Caribbean Sea that killed two survivors.
When ABC News pressed him in the Oval Office with specific questions about responsibility and the attack, Trump said “this is war.” although Congress has not authorized war and the initial attack is still being examined.
PHOTO: President Trump announced on his social media platform that he ordered U.S. military forces to conduct “a kinetic attack against positively identified Aragua Train narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of ​​responsibility.”
@realDonaldTrump/Social Truth
“Will you release video of that attack so the American people can see for themselves?” ABC’s chief White House correspondent Selina Wang asked, noting that she had released video of the first attack shortly after it occurred.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we certainly won’t release it,” he responded.
President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on December 3, 2025.
Will Oliver/EPA/Shutterstock
When Wang questioned whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Adm. Mitch Bradley, who Hegseth said ordered the second strike, should face consequences, Trump avoided answering directly.
“Mr. President, if it is discovered that the survivors died while clinging to that ship, should Secretary Hegseth, Admiral Bradley or others be punished?” she asked.
“I think if we look back a few years, we’ll find that this is a war, that these people were killing our people by the millions,” Trump said. “I think last year we lost close to 300,000 people. Not to mention all the families.”
He continued: “I think you’re going to find that there’s a very receptive ear to do exactly what you’re doing, taking those ships out. And pretty soon we’ll start doing it on land too, because we know every route, we know every house, we know where they made this junk, we know where they put it all together. AND I think we will see it very soon on land as well.”
“So, to be clear, do you support the decision to kill the survivors after the initial attack?” Wang continued.
“No,” Trump said. “I support the decision to cancel the ships. “And whoever piloted those ships, most of them are gone, but whoever piloted those ships, they are guilty of trying to kill people in our country.”
Trump said he had agreed to the release of the video on the eve of Bradley heading to the Capitol on Thursday to face closed-door questions from lawmakers, including some top Republicans who said they wanted to see video evidence of what happened.
Screenshot of a video posted on social media by President Donald Trump, on September 15, 2025, of what he said was a US military attack on a ship supposedly transporting drugs from Venezuela.
Donald J. Trump/Social Truth
Some Democrats and legal experts have suggested that the killing of survivors could be a war crime.
ABC News reported new details about the second attack on Wednesday, with a source familiar with the incident saying the survivors were considered “still in the fight” and valid targets because they had reboarded the ship, were believed to be potentially in communication with others in the vicinity and were recovering some of the drugs that had been the ship’s cargo.
