War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that the U.S. military “has only just begun” its campaign against suspected narcoterrorists.
At this ninth Trump Cabinet meeting, Hegseth shared the War Department’s commitment to continuing strikes against ships in the Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean suspected of attempting to transport narcotics to the United States.
“We’ve just started hitting narco boats and sending narco terrorists to the bottom of the ocean because they’ve been poisoning the American people,” he said.
“Joe Biden tried to take a kid gloves approach and allowed them to cross the border, cartels take over a community, 20 million people, hundreds of thousands of Americans poisoned. And President Trump said, ‘No, we’re taking the gloves off. We’re taking the fight to these designated terrorist organizations,'” Hegseth added.
Trump immediately said there had been a 91 percent reduction in drugs entering the United States by sea.
According to NPR, there had been 21 strikes on suspected drug boats as of November 15.
“We took a little break because it’s hard to find boats to hit right now, and that’s the whole point,” Hegseth said, to laughter from other cabinet officials. “Deterrence must matter, not the arrest and surrender and then repeat, rinse and repeat approach of previous administrations. The goal is to come out on top after this approach.”
Hegseth also reaffirmed his support for “commanders” who issue “judgment judgments” during such strikes, after the White House said Monday that Admiral Frank Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law” during the September 2 strikes.
“As President Trump always supports us. We always support our commanders who make decisions in difficult situations, and we do in this case and in all of these strikes, they make judgments and make sure they defend the American people,” Hegseth said.
“They did the right things. We will continue to do it and we support them,” he added.
