Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks as President Donald Trump looks on, during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025, in Washington.

WASHINGTON — US president Donald Trump and defence secretary Pete Hegseth, who both gloated about the killing of alleged drug smugglers back when it happened, on Wednesday continued blaming a Navy admiral for launching a follow-up attack on survivors clinging to the wreckage — an act described as a war crime in a US military manual.

Hegseth, who early on said he watched the September 2 attack off the Trinidad coast live as it was happening, on Tuesday clarified that he saw only the initial attack, not the follow-up.

“As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours, or whatever,” he said, using Trump’s nickname for the Department of Defence in a question-and-answer session following a meeting of Trump’s Cabinet at the White House.

Hegseth then said Adm. Frank Bradley, on his own, decided to launch the second strike that killed the survivors.

“A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the ― which he had the complete authority to do — and by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.”

The US Department of Defence Law of War Manual defines that exact circumstance as an unlawful killing: “For example, orders to fire........

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