Trump says he “wouldn’t do

Washington- President Trump said Sunday that he “would not have wanted” a second attack on a suspected drug vessel earlier this year, while pledging to investigate the matter that has raised concerns among lawmakers.

“The first attack was very lethal, it was fine and there were two people around,” the president told reporters on Air Force One. “But Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in him.”

The Washington Post reported Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a verbal order to leave no survivors in the first U.S. attack on a suspected drug smuggling ship in the Caribbean in September. The Post reported that the first attack left two survivors in the water and said the operation’s commander ordered a second attack to comply with Hegseth’s directive, killing the survivors.

Hegseth has called the reports “fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory,” stating that operations in the Caribbean are “legal under both US and international law.”

News themezone has not independently confirmed the Washington Post reports.

The report sparked concern among lawmakers and experts, including a group of former military lawyers who argued in an assessment Saturday that the second reported attack would be a violation of international or domestic law. In Congress, leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees pledged to investigate the alleged subsequent strike. And Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia saying on Sunday’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the follow-up attack “rises to the level of a war crime if true,” while Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio agreed that “it would be an illegal act” if true.

The president defended Hegseth on Sunday, telling reporters several times that the defense secretary told him he never gave the reported order.

“I don’t know what happened and Pete said he didn’t want them, he didn’t even know what people were talking about,” Trump said.

The president said, “I’m going to find out, but Pete said he didn’t order the deaths of those two men.”

The developments come as the United States has carried out nearly two dozen attacks on shipping in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean since the first attack on September 2.

When asked by News themezone if he had concerns about ship attacks more generally, Trump said “very little, because you can see the ships, you can see the drugs on the ships, and each ship is responsible for killing 25,000 Americans.”

“The amount of drugs that reach our country by sea is negligible compared to what it was just a few months ago,” said the president.