Tipsheet

The New York Times Just Blew WaPo's Hegseth War Crimes Story Out of the Water

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  December 02, 2025 10:00 AM

For the past several days, the Democratic Party, with an assist from The Washington Post, has been smearing Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the Trump administration's attacks on narco-terrorists in the Caribbean. This is part of the Democrats' larger narrative that President Trump is issuing "illegal orders" that our military shouldn't follow.

We'll start with The Washington Post article and its baseless claims. On November 28, WaPo reported that Hegseth ordered the military to "kill them all" after two drug runners survived the initial strike of their vessel.

Here's some of what WaPo alleged:

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.

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck.

The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack — the opening salvo in the Trump administration’s war on suspected drug traffickers in the Western Hemisphere — ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

The Trump administration and Secretary Hegseth immediately denied this report. In a lengthy post on X, Secretary Hegseth blasted the "fake news" and their "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting.

"As we've said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be 'lethal, kinetic strikes,'" Hegseth wrote. "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."

"The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists," Hegseth continued. "Biden coddled terrorists; we kill them."

"Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command," Hegseth wrote. "Our warriors in SOUTHCOM put their lives on the line every day to protect the Homeland from narco-terrorists — and I will ALWAYS have their back."

Sean Parnell, Assistant to the Secretary of War, also slammed WaPo for this narrative.

"We told the Washington Post that this entire narrative was false yesterday,"  Parnell wrote on X. "These people just fabricate anonymously sourced stories out of whole cloth. Fake News is the enemy of the people."

Now, the Trump administration and Secretary Hegseth are being backed up by The New York Times, saying that the WaPo article didn't "provide context on when Mr. Hegseth gave what its sources described as a spoken order to kill everyone."

Here's more from The New York Times:

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.

This proves WaPo lied about Secretary Hegseth and Admiral Bradley.

This is an exoneration of Hegseth and Bradley.

Others have stated, on the record, that WaPo's reporting was fabricated.

Batya Ungar-Sargon went on CNN to discuss the strikes.

"Well, first of all, the story has been massively misreported. So, you have actual headlines saying that Hegseth gave the order for the second hit. That wasn't in the initial Washington Post article," Ungar-Sargon said.

"But what I don't understand is that it is the Secretary of State's right to determine who is a terrorist and who isn't. The Secretary of State answers to the executive branch. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has determined that these boats are carrying terrorists, which makes the attacks on them legal," she continued. "And the only question is whether that boat was disabled or whether it was destroyed. If it was destroyed, how were there still live people clinging to it? And if it was only disabled...then it was still a threat, meaning it was still a legitimate target. So, I'm very confused.”  

"And, by the way, I've spoken to a lot of veterans today who are also very confused by all of this bipartisan outrage. I don't get it," Ungar-Sargon concluded.