(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The far left has piled on War Secretary Pete Hegseth after the leftist Washington Post questioned the legality of the air strikes he authorized against drug traffickers tied to a foreign terrorist group.
Some of the criticism went as far as claiming Hegseth could be prosecuted once President Donald Trump’s term ends and that the strikes were war crimes.
Nowhere in their criticism do they mention that the Obama administration carried out repeated air strikes of its own. Worse, many of those strikes killed hundreds of civilians.
Hegseth’s supporters noted that former President Barack Obama oversaw more than 500 drone strikes in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. He killed 3,797 people, including between 380 and 800 civilians, according to different estimates.
At least four American citizens died in the Obama-ordered strikes as well.
DUE PROCESS? Each week President Obama ordered an average of 1.3 drone strikes killing an average 6.7 people. The Pentagon estimated that several hundred civilians were inadvertently killed. President Trump has ordered an average of 1 missile strike per week killing an average of… pic.twitter.com/wDm2c2VsLQ
— @amuse (@amuse) October 20, 2025
Meanwhile, the smears against Hegseth began Friday after the Post reported that the Department of War killed two narco-terrorists who appeared to have survived an earlier strike.
According to the leftist newspaper, the follow-up strike was carried out in line with Hegseth’s order to “kill them all.” The terrorists were part of the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump designated as a terrorist organization on Jan. 20, 2026.
The report relied on anonymous sources purportedly with knowledge of the Sept. 2 strike, which Trump himself posted on Truth Social.
. @POTUS “Earlier this morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. TDA is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, operating under the control of… pic.twitter.com/aAyKOb9RHb
— DOW Rapid Response (@DOWResponse) September 2, 2025
The Post cited critics to claim that the operation could amount to “murder” because there is no “legitimate war” between the U.S. and Latin American drug traffickers.
Hegseth quickly dismissed the Post’s narrative, writing on X that the ongoing strikes are targeting drug-filled boats, in accordance with Trump’s armed conflicts with Foreign Designated Terrorist Organizations.
“The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence,” Hegseth wrote. “The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”
In a separate post, Hegseth added, “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”
As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.
As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically…
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) November 28, 2025
