Speaking to U.S. troops aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington in Yokosuka, Japan on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said his interdiction of drug shipments in the Caribbean has been so successful that “we can’t find a ship” loaded with drugs any more.
Trump made the comment in the course of talking about Pete Hegeseth, who he said was “formerly our Secretary of Defense, but now he’s proudly known as our Secretary of War.” Hegseth was present on the George Washington while Trump made his remarks.
“He’s so happy now,” Trump said of Hegseth. “Those drug ships aren’t coming in anymore. We can’t find a ship. There’s no ships coming in with drugs. It’s like he’s been incredible. So thank you very much, Pete. You gave up a lot. We appreciate it. Thank you.”
Trump explained that changing Hegseth’s title to “Secretary of War” was part of his administration’s effort to purge political correctness from military affairs.
“When it comes to defending the United States, we’re no longer politically correct. We’re going to defend our country any way we have to. And that’s usually not the politically correct way,” Trump said.
The U.S. military began destroying drug boats on Trump’s orders in September. On Monday, the U.S. conducted its largest military strike against alleged drug traffickers to date, destroying four boats off the Pacific coast of Colombia.
“A total of 14 narco-terrorists were killed during the three strikes, with one survivor. All strikes were in international waters with no U.S. forces harmed,” Hegseth said on Tuesday.
“The Department has spent over TWO DECADES defending other homelands. Now, we’re defending our own. These narco-terrorists have killed more Americans than Al-Qaeda, and they will be treated the same. We will track them, we will network them, and then, we will hunt and kill them,” Hegseth vowed.
U.S. strikes since September have destroyed at least 14 boats, with a total of 57 casualties reported, including those from Monday. Democrat Senator Chris van Hollen of Maryland on Monday denounced Trump’s actions as “illegal” and “extrajudicial killings.”
“Even if there’s evidence, you would think that if you were serious about cracking down on these things you’d arrest these people, you’d go upstream, you’d go after the kingpins,” Van Hollen said, without explaining how he could arrest those kingpins without major land invasions of several Latin American nations.
