'Murderer!' Outrage as new Trump strikes push death toll beyond 70

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced a new series of military strikes Monday that killed at least six people as part of the Trump administration’s purported efforts to combat drug trafficking, sparking outrage over what critics have dubbed the administration’s “extrajudicial executions.”

At the direction of President Donlad Trump, the U.S. military conducted strikes on two sea vessels in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, vessels that Hegseth alleged were “operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations.”

“Both strikes were conducted in international waters and 3 male narco-terrorists were aboard each vessel. All 6 were killed. No U.S. forces were harmed,” Hegseth wrote Monday in a social media post on X. “Under President Trump, we are protecting the homeland and killing these cartel terrorists who wish to harm our country and its people.”

The strikes were just the latest in a series of strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean targeting suspected drug traffickers, which to date have killed at least 75 people. The operations have drawn scrutiny from across the political spectrum, including from a majority of Democratic lawmakers, as well as a growing number of Republicans, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) labeling the strikes as illegal “extrajudicial killings.”

With Hegseth’s latest announcement, the scrutiny only intensified.

“Yay!!! More extra-judicial international executions by the United States,” wrote X user “Artie Vandelay,” an advocate for gun law reform who’s amassed nearly 11,000 followers. “This totally can’t come back to bite us.”

Hegseth has been accused of perpetuating illegal assassinations for approving the targeted strikes, which have denied those targeted any form of due process, strikes that have been accompanied by the Trump administration’s military escalations with Venezuela, which has seen the deployment of an aircraft carrier strikes group Trinidad, which lies just off of Venezuela’s coast.

Those accusations intensified Monday as the death toll from the Trump administration’s strikes grows closer to eclipsing 100.

“Thanks for 2 more pieces of evidence in your inevitable tribunal,” wrote X user “Bill DeMayo,” a political commentator who describes themselves as a “member of the resistance” who has amassed more than 12,000 followers. “Murderer.”