President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday that his administration would “certainly” release video of a follow-up strike on an alleged drug vessel within the Caribbean after the preliminary assault didn’t kill everybody on board.
“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem,” Trump instructed reporters within the Oval Office. “You know, we stopped — every boat we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives.”
Trump posted video of the preliminary strike shortly after the September 2 operation to his Truth Social platform.
Pressed in a follow-up trade about whether or not he supported the choice to kill survivors in a second strike, Trump mentioned, “No, I support the decision to knock out the boats, and whoever is piloting those boats. Most of them are gone, but whoever’s piloting those boats, they’re guilty of trying to kill people in our country.”
And Trump dismissed questions on whether or not Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth or Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley, who the administration mentioned ordered the second strike, needs to be punished if survivors have been clinging to the boat.
“I think you’re going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions,” Trump mentioned.
“I think you’re going to find that there’s a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they’re doing, taking out those boats,” Trump mentioned. “And very soon, we’re going to start doing it on land too.”