After three months of deadly U.S. military strikes against civilian boats in international waters, the Trump administration has generated a great many questions, though a simple one has hovered near the top of the list: Are these operations legal?....

These questions grew considerably louder late last week, with striking reporting from The Washington Post. In an article published on the day after Thanksgiving, the Post reported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive to military personnel to kill everybody on a vessel carrying 11 people. From the piece:

A missile screamed off the Trinidad coast, striking the vessel and igniting a blaze from bow to stern. For minutes, commanders watched the boat burning on a live drone feed. As the smoke cleared, they got a jolt: Two survivors were clinging to the smoldering wreck. The Special Operations commander overseeing the Sept. 2 attack … ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said. The two men were blown apart in the water.

.....For his part, Hegseth, who downplayed the importance of war crimes before joining the White House Cabinet, posted a carefully worded statement to social media late Friday, which noted in part, “Our current operations in the Caribbean are lawful under both U.S. and international law.” (The word “current” appeared to be doing a lot of work in the sentence.)

As for the president, Trump spoke briefly with reporters on Sunday night while on Air Force One, and when asked about the allegations raised by the Post, he said, “I don’t know anything about it,” adding that Hegseth denied the accuracy of the reporting.

Reporter: If there were a second strike that killed wounded people, would that be legal?

Trump: I don’t know that happened and Pete said he did not even know what people were talking about. I wouldn’t have wanted a second strike. The first strike was very lethal. It was fine.

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) 2025-11-30T23:17:13.683Z

....Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, meanwhile, issued a challenge to Hegseth. “Release the full, unedited tapes of the strikes so the American people can see for themselves,” the New York Democrat wrote in an online statement. “Your recklessness demands full transparency and strict congressional oversight. We will hold you accountable.”

The Pentagon has not yet responded to the challenge. Watch this space.