Hegseth, who early on said he watched the Sept. 2 attack off the Trinidad coast live as it was happening, on Tuesday clarified that he saw only the initial attack, not the follow-up. Advertisement“As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. Hegseth then said Adm. Frank Bradley, on his own, decided to launch the second strike that killed the survivors. AdvertisementPresident Donald Trump speaks as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth looks on during a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 2, 2025. At Monday’s White House briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied that there had been any change in protocols for dealing with survivors following the Sept. 2 strike.
