White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Monday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth authorized an order to strike a Venezuelan drug boat a second time in September after two people survived the first strike, insisting that the action was legal.

“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narcoterrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war,” Leavitt told reporters on Monday. “With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Adm. Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes.”

Head of the US Special Operations Command Admiral Frank Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated,” she added.

The confirmation came after the Washington Post reported the order by Bradley on Friday, in response to Hegseth's verbal authorization.

"Kill everybody"

“The order was to kill everybody,” the paper reported.

Under international laws, the second strike could be considered a war crime, the Post reported, but Trump said it was for "self-defense."

“The strike conducted on Sept. 2 was conducted in self-defense to protect Americans and vital United States interests,” Leavitt said in a prepared statement. “The strike was conducted in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”

"One more point to remind the American public why these lethal strikes are taking place," she said. “The president has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America and if they are bringing illegal narcotics that are killing our citizens at a record rate, which is what they are doing."

Trump's comments

Trump had initially said after the Post's report that he believed Hegseth's assertion that he didn't order the second strike.

"Pete said he did not order the death of those two men,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One. “And I believe him.”

Trump further said that Hegseth “wouldn’t have wanted that — not a second strike,” but that he would look into it. Now that it is confirmed, we will see what Trump has to say about it.

Legal authority

Trump designated Venezuela's narcoterrorists, such as Tren de Aragua, as foreign terror organizations, which gives the US military the legal authority to blast the drug boats out of the water.

The problem is, the left doesn't believe Tren de Aragua and other drug gangs are terrorists, and is more than comfortable to continue to let enough fentanyl to kill every single American a couple of times into the country every year.

Democrats didn't think Trump's designation of drug rings as terrorists was legitimate, and therefore they don't think the military strike against those terrorists was legitimate, either.