Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S military to carry out an attack on an alleged drug boat on Thursday, killing four occupants, amid the ongoing “double tap” controversy surrounding the Trump administration’s strikes in the Caribbean.
“On Dec. 4, at the direction of Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization,” U.S Southern Command, which oversees the attacks, posted on social media.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific. Four male narco-terrorists aboard the vessel were killed.”
Video footage posted by SouthCom shows a boat speeding across the ocean surface before becoming engulfed in flames.
The latest attack takes the total number of people killed in the Trump administration’s strikes to at least 86.
The strike came just hours after Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the Navy SEAL officer who leads U.S. Special Operations Command, showed House and Senate members on the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees footage of the lethal strikes conducted on September 2 and answered questions.
Bradley’s appearance on Capitol Hill comes as the Pentagon faces scrutiny for authorizing a second strike on an alleged drug boat on September 2. The follow-up strike — referred to by some as a double tap — was launched after two survivors were seen clinging to the wrecked vessel.
Democratic Rep. Jim Himes, a ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters the footage was “one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service.” In contrast, Tom Cotton, GOP chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, called the strikes “righteous” and “entirely lawful.”
Defending the second strike on Tuesday, Hegseth said it took place within “the fog of war” and added that Bradley acted “within his authority and the law.” Shortly after the latest attack on Thursday, he took to social media to gloat about it.
“Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean,” Andrew Kolvett, the spokesperson for TPUSA wrote on X. Hegseth replied, “Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.”
Thursday’s strike is part of a broader campaign by the Trump administration to cut off the supply of illicit drugs coming into the U.S. and to apply pressure to to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, whom Trump has branded a narco-terrorist.
During a press conference yesterday, Trump claimed the U.S. is at “war” with drug cartels in Venezuela amidst an unprecedented buildup of military assets in the Caribbean. He also indicated that the attacks could escalate.
“Very soon we’re going to start doing it on land too,” the president said. “Because we know every route, we know every house where they manufacture this crap. We know where they put it all together. And I think you’re going to see if very soon on land also.”
Maduro has denied he is involved in drug trafficking and has accused the Trump administration of “fabricating a new eternal war.”
More than just the double-tap controversy, the overall campaign of striking boats in the Caribbean has been subject to significant debate.
A number of Democratic lawmakers have described them as “illegal” and “reckless,” pointing out that the administration has failed to publicly provide evidence that those killed were indeed traffickers. A few GOP lawmakers have agreed.
“We don’t blow up boats off Miami because 25 percent of the time suspicion is wrong,” Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said in October. “We shouldn’t do it off Venezuela either. These are small outboards with no fentanyl and no path to Florida.”
Human rights groups and U.N. officials have also characterized the U.S. military’s offensive in Latin America as illegal under international law. Amnesty International called it “murder — plain and simple.”
Many Republicans, particularly those closely aligned with Trump, have defended the campaign. This weekend, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin said Trump is “protecting the United States by being very proactive.”
In September, Vice President JD Vance acknowledged concerns surrounding the attacks, but said the rules of engagement should be akin to what they are during wartime.
“I understand the concerns about due process, I understand some of the criticisms that have been raised, but this is not a situation where we can send the Navy SEALs into these places, arrest them and give them a proper civil trial or criminal trial,” he told Politico.
A CBS News/YouGov poll conducted in late November indicates the public has mixed feelings about the recent military campaign in the Caribbean.
A slim majority, 53 percent, said they support using military force to attack suspected drug boats, while 73 percent said the government needs to provide evidence the boats carried drugs. Further, 70 percent of respondents said they would oppose the U.S. taking military action in Venezuela.
