In a conspicuously aggressive display of a thirst for violence, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—once a Fox News anchor—took pride in a strike on what he called “narco-terrorists” inside a supposed drug camp in South America, a claim later revealed to concern a modest dairy farm nestled in a remote Ecuadorian village.
Early in March, aides to Trump released a video that appeared to depict a massive explosion in a rural area of Ecuador, framed as a joint operation by American and Ecuadorian forces against a drug-trafficking training site, according to coverage by The New York Times.
It appears that Trump and Hegseth’s crusade of blasting boats from the sea—allegedly to disrupt drug shipments headed for the United States and unsupported by proof—has migrated inland. On March 6, Hegseth posted that the military was “now bombing Narco Terrorists on land,” a claim made in conjunction with the video of the strike.
Over the past year, more than 140 individuals have died in Hegseth’s assault on supposed drug-trafficking boats.
‘He Is an Embarrassment’: Trump Makes Comments So Offensive to Americans During Event That the White House Scrubs the Video from Its Website
Once again, neither the president, Hegseth, nor Ecuadorian officials supplied evidence supporting the allegations about the small farm. When Times reporters began looking into the site near the Colombia-Ecuador border, the farm’s owners, workers, and human-rights lawyers all described it as a modest cattle and dairy operation.
Social media quickly lit up, with critics accusing Hegseth of committing “war crimes.”
“This is at the least a debacle, at the worst murder,” wrote one X user, Robert J Ellingsworth.
“Hegseth is a sociopath!” another commentator declared.
Others teased Hegseth’s past issues with alcohol. “Kegseth thinks he’s playing a video game, while chugging Red Bull and vodka.”
But a more solemn note emerged from some: “That man is one of the dumbest mfers ever to hold office; the fact that he’s in that position of power is deeply concerning.”
Since taking office for a second term, Trump has frequently portrayed himself as “the president of peace” and has continually lamented why he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, yet the reality on the ground tells a far different story.
Although he has claimed, falsely, to have ended eight wars, he has actually sanctioned military actions in nearly as many nations within just over a year, including Yemen, Syria, Somalia, Iraq, and Nigeria. This does not mention abducting Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife from their Caracas home and preserving the Maduro regime despite Venezuelans electing the opposition leader in democratic elections last year.
Trump also initiated a deadly, unauthorized, ongoing confrontation with Iran on February 28, even as negotiations continued over the country’s long-range ballistic-missile program and nuclear ambitions.
He has reiterated mixed messages and shifted his aims—from ensuring Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon to attempting to constrain its weapons programs to pursuing regime change—and has publicly contradicted himself on the justification for taking the United States into another foreign conflict he vociferously opposed while campaigning for a second term.
