The Washington Post dropped a bombshell last week, claiming Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a second missile strike on a drug boat in September to make sure survivors were killed. “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive, according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. ‘The order was to kill everybody,’ one of them said,” WaPo claimed, relying entirely on anonymous sources. 

Hegseth promptly denied the report in a post on X.

“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” he wrote. “As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization.”

Hegseth also argued that the country is finally seeing the difference between weak leadership and real enforcement, adding that Biden administration used “kid gloves,” and let millions of people pour into the country - including “dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans,” which brought chaos into communities. He contrasted that with Trump’s approach, noting that “the Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists,” and drove the point home with his blunt line: “Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”

He stressed that current missions in the Caribbean follow the law, explaining that operations are “lawful under both U.S. and international law” and cleared by top military and civilian attorneys. He closed by praising the men and women of SOUTHCOM, saying they risk everything to keep the country safe from narco-terrorists and declaring he will “ALWAYS have their back.”

Despite the denial, Democrats pounced on the report. 

“I served on active duty as a JAG for four years, and then an additional 21 years in the reserves. And let me be very clear: Killing shipwrecked survivors is a war crime,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) told reporters on Monday. 

“The Department of Justice must conduct an investigation into the war crime and hold all of those accountable — including Sec. Hegseth. He allegedly said, ‘Kill them all,’” Lieu, the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, continued. “If the Trump administration does not hold the people accountable, I guarantee you a future administration will do so. Because there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.”

The problem, however, is that the story is false. The New York Times investigated and debunked The Washington Post’s claim. 

According to five U.S. officials, who spoke separately and on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter that is under investigation, Mr. Hegseth, ahead of the Sept. 2 attack, ordered a strike that would kill the people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs.

But, each official said, Mr. Hegseth's directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out not to fully accomplish all of those things. And, the officials said, his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived the first blast.

Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors and sank the disabled boat. As that operation unfolded, they said, Mr. Hegseth did not give any further orders to him.

The Times stopped short of calling the Post's reporting a fabrication, but they couldn't find even one anonymous source to back up the claim that Hegseth watched survivors clinging to wreckage and then ordered them killed. 

Administration tracking shows roughly 80 narcoterrorists killed in the Caribbean and Pacific since early September. After the September incident, protocols shifted to focus on capturing survivors. In an October strike, two survivors were detained and transferred to Ecuador and Colombia. U.S. officials told the Times they intercepted communications tying at least one survivor to traffickers. Lawmakers have asked for the execution order, but the administration hasn’t handed it over.

The White House says it has launched 21 operations since September 2, with 83 fatalities. And with major outlets contradicting each other on claims about kill orders, Washington stays locked in outrage mode rather than grappling with a more mundane operational reality.

"We've only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean because they've been poisoning the American people," War Secretary Hegseth said Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting.