Conservative Media Turns Against Hegseth on Drug Boat Strikes
Even MAGA media outlet Newsmax is calling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s September 2 boat bombings a war crime.
“It gives me no pleasure to say what I’m about to say, because I worked with Pete Hegseth for seven or eight years at Fox News,” Judge Andrew Napolitano said on air Tuesday. “This is an act of a war crime. Ordering survivors—who the law requires be rescued—instead to be murdered.”
Napolitano continued.
“There’s absolutely no legal basis for it. Everybody along the line who did it, from the secretary of defense to the admiral to the people who actually pulled the trigger, should be prosecuted for a war crime for killing these two people.”
Woah. Newsmax’s legal analyst just said Pete Hegseth and everyone involved in the illegal boat strike should be “prosecuted for a war crime.”
They’ve even lost Newsmax on this one. pic.twitter.com/ymzpvWoI67— Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) December 2, 2025
Newsmax is tailor-made for a far-right audience, is the preferred network of President Trump, and has been virtually unwavering in its support for him. This kind of critique, especially coming from Hegseth’s former co-worker, speaks to just how poorly planned the explanation for this potential war crime was, and how widely panned the decisions have been from both the left and the right.
