Pete Hegseth said to kill everybody, officials say
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 December 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
When the U.S. first struck a suspected drug-smuggling boat off the Trinidad coast on Sept. 2, two survivors were left clinging to the wreckage. In order to comply with the commands he’d been given by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Special Operations commander ordered a second strike, according to two people familiar with the matter. It killed the two survivors.
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with national security reporter Alex Horton about what this new information reveals about the Trump administration’s campaign against suspected drug smugglers.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy with help from Sabby Robinson and Reena Flores. It was edited by Ariel Plotnick and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Ben Pauker.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegeseth was simple. Kill them all. |
| 0:09.5 | Officials told post reporters about Hegsa's order to strike a boat in the Caribbean. And according to our exclusive reporting, that order became the opening salvo in the Trump administration's war on alleged drug traffickers |
| 0:22.3 | coming from Venezuela. Now legal experts say the command from Hegeseth may be more than just an |
| 0:27.7 | aggressive military action. It could be considered a war crime or even murder. |
| 0:36.7 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 0:40.7 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. It's Monday, December 1st. |
| 0:44.6 | Today we talk to national security reporter Alex Horton about why Hegss's order is so controversial, |
| 0:51.4 | and how even Republican lawmakers are alarmed by this discovery. |
| 0:59.7 | Alex, thank you so much for joining me. |
| 1:02.0 | It's great to be back again, Colby. |
| 1:03.5 | So, Alex, your reporting shows that Heggseth, he gave this kill order before the U.S. |
| 1:08.4 | carried out a September 2nd attack on a boat in the Caribbean. And this would be |
| 1:13.9 | the first of many more attacks over several months. Remind us, why was the Pentagon targeting these |
| 1:21.6 | boats? So the Trump administration had handed down an edict to the entire government, which was protect the homeland from drug traffickers and drug trafficking, stop the flow of drugs. |
| 1:34.0 | And ordinarily, customs and border protection is interdicting stuff that crosses the border, the U.S. Coast Guard, which does have a law enforcement mission to track boats, to stop them, board them, and arrest the people on board for further prosecution and to cease the drugs. |
| 1:52.1 | And they've been seizing tons and tons of cocaine for years and years in the region. |
| 1:55.7 | And that's been their mission, and they're pretty good at it. |
| 1:58.4 | But in this particular mission, the U.S. military was now playing a key role. |
| 2:05.1 | So there were several warships dispatched in the region, starting on September 2nd and going forward today, |
| 2:12.8 | that mission turned into a much more deadly and much more kinetic option for the Pentagon. |
| 2:18.3 | So what is our understanding, and we've covered this on the show before, but what is our understanding? The U.S. surveils this boat in the Caribbean, and then what happens? |
| 2:28.3 | So this mission was overseen by some of the most capable and secretive units in the U.S. military, the unit that's commonly known as SEAL Team 6. |
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