Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the hundreds gathered at the Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley on Saturday, Dec. 6, that President Donald Trump has the power to take military action “as he sees fit” to keep the nation safe and said naval strikes on alleged drug cartel boats in the Caribbean are forcing smugglers to change how they operate.
The comments were delivered in his keynote address, and a Q&A that followed, before hundreds gathered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for its 12th annual forum, which brings representatives of defense and technology companies, many based in Southern California, together to rub shoulders and exchange ideas with lawmakers, senior Department of Defense leadership, and foreign defense leaders.
As part of his 30-plus-minute keynote speech, Hegseth, addressing Trump’s focus on the U.S. defending itself against terrorism, made it clear that the president has declared war on narco-terrorists. Hegseth compared the alleged drug smugglers to Al-Qaida terrorists and said anyone bringing drugs into the United States will be stopped.
“If you’re working for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you. Let there be no doubt about it,” he said. “President Trump can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation’s interests. Let no country on earth doubt that for a moment.”
Lawmakers this week asked more questions about the attacks and their legal justification, and whether U.S. forces were ordered to launch a follow-up strike during a Sept. 2 operation even after the Pentagon knew of survivors. Hegseth dismissed criticism of the strikes, which have killed more than 80 people.
Hegseth’s comments were made under the shadow of Reagan’s Air Force One, and Hegseth took the location as an opportunity to tell those gathered that, like Reagan, who focused on “peace through strength,” Trump is carrying on that legacy to create a strong and powerful military.
“It is President Trump who has inherited and restored President Reagan’s powerful, focused and realistic approach to national defense,” Hegseth said. “It is therefore fitting that we gather at the presidential library today to talk about President Trump’s America First plan.
“Reagan rebuilt the military after Vietnam,” Hegseth said. “President Trump is doing he same, making historic investments in defense. We still talk about the Reagan buildup, and my kids and yours will someday talk about the Trump buildup.”
The secretary, who once served as an infantry officer in the National Guard and was narrowly confirmed by the Senate after Vice President JD Vance cast the deciding vote, has come under scrutiny recently over the use of military force in a Navy strike of an alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela. In particular, the decision was made to shoot at the ship a second time to sink the craft when there were survivors in the water. Some lawmakers are arguing the second strike may violate the laws of armed conflict.
Hegseth told the audience his job as defense secretary was to give the go for the operation once he was satisfied the proper criteria was met and he “stayed 5 minutes after. Ultimately, at that point, it was a tactical operation, so I moved on to other things. I shouldn’t be fighting tactics as the secretary of war.”
Hegseth said a couple of hours later, he was informed there had needed to be a second strike, “because there were a couple of folks who could still be in the fight.”
“I said Roger, sounds good,” Hegseth told the defense forum audience. “From what I understood then, and what I understand now, I fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself.”
He added that anyone with combat experience would acknowledge that “restrikes of combatants on the battlefield happen often.”
“In this particular case, it was well within the authorities of Admiral (Frank “Mitch”) Bradley,” said Hegseth, who also added that the nearly two dozen strikes the American military had made on watercraft since, “have followed similar protocol of ensuring we meet the criteria — the decision is not at my level anymore — and then we take the strike.”
He challenged news reports that he directed that everyone on board in the Sept. 2 strike should be killed.
“Of course not,” he said when asked by Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson during the onstage Q&A. “Anybody who has been in the situation room or they have been in the war room there, the secretary’s office, you don’t walk in and say, ‘Kill them all,’ it is just patently ridiculous. It is meant to make a cartoon of me and the decisions we make and how we make them.”
In a classified briefing of lawmakers on Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Bradley told officials no such order was given.
“Anybody that knows, knows that’s not how things go,” Hegseth said. “There is a very defined process, specific criteria — go, no go; yes, no; lawyers; intel analysts, everything – and after that you simply say cleared hot or not.”
Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, is demanding further investigation, saying the survivors were “basically two shirtless people clinging to the bow of a capsized and inoperable boat, drifting in the water.”
Legal experts have told national media the attack amounts to a crime if the survivors were targeted.
“What people think is cavalier or cowboy about it is the exact opposite,” Hegseth said. “These are the most professional Americans going through specific processes about what they can and can not do. Understanding all the authorities, all the laws of war, all the capabilities, and applying it to deter our adversaries.”
“And by the way, there are not a lot of people getting into boats right now running drugs. which is the whole point. We want to stop the poisoning of the American people,” Hegseth said.
“The catch and release program, the pat them on the head and release them so they can go back to the fight didn’t work in Iraq and Afghanistan and it is not going to work in the Caribbean,” he added. “So we are putting them at the bottom of the Caribbean, which is forcing them to change the way that they operate and hopefully makes the American people safer.”
Trump’s focus is not only against the narco terrorists, he added, but also making sure the U.S. has access to the Panama Canal, the Arctic and Greenland.
Hegseth also drew criticism shortly after his confirmation for using the Signal messaging app to discuss pending strikes in Yemen. A Pentagon inspector general this week found his actions posed risks to the mission and those involved with it.
When asked by Tomlinson about using the messaging app, Hegseth said,” I don’t live my life with any regrets.”
Hegseth outlined during his keynote address key principles of the defense department that will operate in a climate that casts out “utopian idealism and replaces it with hard-nosed realism.”
“President Trump knows what it means to restore peace through strength on an enduring basis, that leaves Americans better, but also allies better off,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth said other partner countries and allies must also participate in the “burden-sharing.”
“This isn’t just about doing right by the Americans,” he said. “Allies need to step up and step up for real. We need to prepare for the positioning of simultaneous threats. The best way to prepare is not to pretend we can be everywhere. In keeping with Reagan, (Richard) Nixon and (Dwight) Eisenhower, we need to get allies and partners to step up. No more free rides.”
“Allies are not children,” he added. “We must expect them to do their part.”
He went on to emphasize that the opportunity for peace does not happen by chance.
“Like Reagan, President Trump is willing to talk to his rivals,” he said, including the leaders of China and Russia. “This is born of strength, not weakness.”
He said that with the newly renamed Department of War, Trump is creating the “most powerful, lethal military the world has ever seen.”
And, to create this force, Hegseth said, “We’re asking the American taxpayer to fund the military and asking mothers and fathers to help with their sons and daughters.”
Hegseth also discussed the need to check China’s rise through strength rather than conflict and emphasized that Trump seeks a stable, peaceful trade that puts both nations on a strong economic path.
“We don’t need to dominate China, but ensure they don’t dominate us or our allies,” he said. “We insist China respect our longstanding interests in the Indo-Pacific. … And if necessary, project strength across the first island chain. Our job is to ensure President Trump can always negotiate from a position of strength.”
Among the lawmakers present was Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, who commended Hegseth for his comments.
“The secretary is on the right path,” Calvert said following the speech. “The focus is on rebuilding the U.S. military. I’m going to be on his side.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.