War on Drugs

Jacob Sullum | 12.17.2025 3:35 PM

Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump said he saw "no problem" with releasing the full video of the newly controversial September 2 operation that inaugurated his deadly military campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific. But on Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said no one aside from a select group of lawmakers would be allowed to see the video, which shows a second missile strike that blew apart two survivors of the initial attack as they clung to the smoldering wreckage.

"In keeping with long-standing…Department of Defense policy, of course, we're not going to release a top secret, full, unedited video of that to the general public," Hegseth said after he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio briefed senators on the boat attacks, which so far have killed 95 people in 25 operations. But the fact that the video currently is deemed "top secret" should not be decisive, since Hegseth has the power to declassify it. He is using vague national security concerns as an excuse to conceal footage that might undermine public support for Trump's murderous anti-drug strategy by vividly showing what it looks like in practice.

"Will you release video of that strike so that the American people can see for themselves?" ABC's Selina Wang asked Trump on December 3. "I don't know what they have," Trump replied, "but whatever they have, we'd certainly release, no problem."

Hegseth contradicted that commitment three days later. "President Trump said he would have no problem if the full video of the strike is released," Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson noted during a

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