Possible war crime puts Trump's 'illegal orders' freakout in new context

The Rachel Maddow Show

Rachel Maddow, MS NOW

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4.5 • 34K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Rachel Maddow relays the details of a new Washington Post report that Donald Trump's secretary of defense, former weekend cable news host Pete Hegseth, gave orders to kill everyone on board a boat he accused of running drugs to the United States, which meant finishing off the survivors of an initial strike that destroyed the boat — the literal textbook definition of an illegal order. Rep. Adam Smith, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee joins to discuss a new, bipartisan push to investigate Hegseth's orders.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Really happy to have you here.
0:02.0	The new Gallup poll out today is terrible news for the president.
0:06.8	Just absolutely terrible.
0:10.2	His approval rating right now is minus 24.
0:15.2	The president is 24 points underwater in his approval rating.
0:21.6	36% of the country approves of him, 60% disapproves.
0:26.4	Just absolutely stunning, not even one year in.
0:32.3	And on the issues, it's even worse.
0:35.1	It's worse just because it's so relentlessly bad for him. No way of light
0:40.1	anywhere here. Do you approve of President Trump on the issue of crime? No, by a nine point margin.
0:45.1	Do you approve of President Trump in the issue of foreign affairs? No, by a 15 point margin.
0:49.5	Do you approve of Trump on trade? No, by a 19 point margin. Do you approve of Trump on immigration, right? He really
0:57.2	want you to love him on the issue of immigration. No, the American people do not approve of his
1:02.7	handling of immigration. And what's the margin? The margin is 25 points. The American people
1:08.7	disapprove of his handling of immigration more than they approve of it by 25 percentage points. Huh, turns out all those propaganda videos of you being mean to immigrants aren't working. Do you approve of Trump on how he is handling things in the Middle East? No, by a 25 point margin. Do you approve of how Trump is handling the economy? No, 26 point margin. Do you approve of how he's handling the Russia and Ukraine war? No, by a 29 point margin. Do you approve of his handling of the budget? No, by a 33 point margin. Do you approve of his handling of health care? No, also by a 33-point margin.
1:49.0	Last week, you might remember me saying on this show at this time, President Trump and the
1:53.6	Republican said they had a fix for the disaster they have created on Americans' health insurance
2:00.5	premiums.
2:02.0	But then, for some reason, last week, they got shy.
2:05.0	They unveiled precisely nothing on the subject.
2:08.4	It's been a week now since they said they were going to unveil their fix.
2:11.8	Still nothing.
	...

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