meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
PBS News Hour - Segments

Military personnel seek legal advice on whether Trump-ordered missions are lawful

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 13 November 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Military service personnel have been seeking outside legal advice about some of the missions the Trump administration has assigned them. The strikes against alleged drug traffickers and deployments to U.S. cities have sparked a debate over their legality. Amna Nawaz discussed more with Frank Rosenblatt, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, which runs The Orders Project. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Military service personnel have been seeking outside legal advice about some of the missions the Trump administration has assigned them.

0:09.0

The U.S. strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats and deployments to American cities have sparked a firestorm of debate over their legality.

0:17.0

And some service members are turning to nonprofit organizations for help.

0:28.1

In grainy footage from above the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean 20 times since September,

0:37.4

the Pentagon has shown the same thing. A flash of light and a boat allegedly carrying drugs into the United States incinerated by a U.S. military strike.

0:38.0

In all, dozens of people killed on board the vessels.

0:41.5

But that is the extent of what the Trump administration has disclosed publicly.

0:45.9

No confirmation of any drugs on board or the identities of the people killed.

0:51.3

President Trump has justified the lethal strikes and the fog of war that's clouded them.

0:56.4

They killed 300,000 people last year, drugs.

1:01.1

These drugs coming in, they killed 300,000 Americans last year, and that gives you legal authority.

1:07.9

We know the boats, we know everything else. We're allowed to do it. It's in

1:12.5

international waters. If we don't do it, we're going to lose hundreds of thousands of people.

1:19.0

Today, reports that the Trump administration is covering its legal basis. According to the Washington

1:24.5

Post, Justice Department lawyers this summer crafted a classified

1:28.3

memo arguing that U.S. troops involved in the boat strikes would not be in legal jeopardy.

1:34.5

On Capitol Hill, open questions, including from Republican members about the legality of those

1:39.5

strikes.

1:40.5

People were not happy with the level of information that was provided, and certainly the level of legal justification that was provided.

1:47.2

Calls to organizations like the Orders Project, which provides free legal advice to military personnel, are on the rise from staff officers involved in planning the boat strikes.

1:59.0

As are calls to a separate hotline from National Guard personnel concerned about domestic deployments

2:05.6

to American cities.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PBS NewsHour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of PBS NewsHour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.