💥 BREAKING NEWS: Trump and Hegseth throw their own admiral under the bus as war crime scandal explodes⚡NN

At first, it sounded like standard spin from a rattled White House. Another scandal, another carefully worded denial. But this time, the stakes weren’t political optics or bad polling.

This time, the stakes were war crimes.

The story began with reports that Navy SEAL Team 6 carried out a second strike on a fishing boat off the coast of Venezuela on September 2nd—this time targeting the survivors who’d been clinging to the wreckage after the initial hit. Two people in the water, injured and defenseless. Two lives allegedly ended in a follow-up attack.

At first, Donald Trump claimed he’d been told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that there were no strikes involving survivors. Then, the story shifted. The White House admitted there was a second strike—but insisted it was carried out under the authority of Admiral Mitch Bradley and SEAL Team 6.

In other words:
If there was a war crime, it was the military’s fault. Not the politicians’.

Hegseth tried to cover himself with a statement that screamed damage control:

“Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero… I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made on the September 2nd mission…”

He framed it as support. But anyone paying attention saw what it really was: a setup. The message was clear—Bradley made the call, Bradley owns the consequences.

It suddenly became a lot easier to understand why four-star Admiral Alvin Holsey, head of Southern Command, abruptly resigned back in October. Holsey saw where this was heading: illegal orders, bloody fallout, and admirals being lined up as the fall guys for decisions made above their heads.

Inside the Pentagon, the backlash was instant.

According to reporting from The Washington Post, Caroline Leavitt’s scripted comments blaming Admiral Bradley for the second strike triggered fury among senior Defense officials. One described the administration’s posture in three words:

“This is protect Pete [expletive].”

Service members and civilian staff alike felt they were being shoved under the bus by a political appointee desperate to save himself. Some of Hegseth’s own top civilian aides, we’re told, began considering resignation.

Retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey didn’t mince words. In an interview, he called the alleged second strike on survivors a “clear war crime” if the accounts are accurate. He drew a haunting parallel:

“We simply can’t have the equivalent of a Nazi submarine machine-gunning survivors in the water.”

McCaffrey warned that whoever accepted a verbal “no survivors” order and passed it down the chain would be personally responsible. He called for a full Senate Armed Services investigation, demanding the audio, the video, the record of who said what and when.

The White House, meanwhile, doubled down on its blame-the-admiral strategy.

At a press briefing, when pressed on what law allowed for “no survivors,” press secretary Caroline Leavitt dodged specifics, claiming the strike was conducted “in self-defense… in accordance with the law of armed conflict.” When asked directly if it was Bradley who ordered the second strike, she pointed the finger:

Yes. Admiral Bradley “directed the engagement.”

And when a reporter cited The Washington Post allegation that Hegseth had given a verbal order to kill all survivors—and asked if that came from Trump—Leavitt simply rejected the premise. Trump, she added, has been clear that he has the authority to kill “narco-terrorists” moving drugs toward the United States.

The problem for Hegseth? His own past words are now evidence.

Old clips resurfaced of him bragging about “no more stupid rules of engagement,” promising to “untie the hands” of warfighters and push “maximum lethality.” In another interview, he complained about military lawyers and suggested you “can’t fight and win” if killing a civilian makes you “the bad guy.”

That’s not a slip. That’s a worldview.

Now that worldview has collided with international law, live drone footage, and witnesses.

Trumpworld media allies rushed in with disturbing gusto. One right-wing host fantasized about wanting the boat survivors to “lose a limb and bleed out a little.” A MAGA congressman dismissed war crime concerns as “garbage,” comparing a second strike on drowning survivors to firing a second missile at a damaged tank.

But inside the military, the mood is different—grim, calculating, and deeply aware that order-givers are trying to turn order-takers into human shields.

Trump and Hegseth once loved to pose as warriors’ best friends, promising to have their backs, no matter what. Now, with potential war crimes on the table, they’re suddenly pointing up the chain of command… and down it.

The message to every admiral and operator is now painfully clear:

When things go right, Trump takes the credit.
When things go deadly wrong… he takes your career—and maybe your freedom—and throws it under the bus.