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........

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