The Trump Administration is Now Reportedly Going Against Military Advisory •

Internal warnings from military lawyers under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have cast a shadow over President Donald Trump’s recent lethal operations against suspected drug-smuggling vessels, with experts questioning whether the strikes cross into illegal territory.

According to a fresh report, Pentagon attorneys voiced serious reservations about the legality of the U.S. military’s attacks on boats allegedly tied to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.

Trump touted the operations earlier this month, releasing social media videos of two strikes that together killed 14 people and briefly mentioning a third vessel during remarks to reporters outside the White House.

The president and Hegseth have dodged specifics on the strikes’ locations, the evidence linking the boats to drug trafficking, or any formal legal basis for what critics call summary executions of civilians.

Typically, the U.S. Coast Guard handles such interceptions by arresting and prosecuting suspects, not resorting to lethal force.

Military Lawyers Say Warning Was Ignored

Career defense officials and military lawyers inside the Pentagon submitted verbal and written opinions to top Department of Defense leaders, flagging potential violations, The Wall Street Journal reported.

They highlighted flaws in the proposed legal rationales and cautioned that the service members who carried out the attacks could face personal liability for the deaths.

Sources told the Journal that decision-makers at the Pentagon effectively brushed aside these alerts, sidelining the lawyers’ input.

Some officials are now scrambling to find ways to shield the involved troops from prosecution.

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly pushed back in a statement to the Journal, insisting the strikes were “fully consistent with the law of armed conflict,” despite the U.S. not being at war with Venezuela.

“These presidentially directed strikes were conducted against the operations of a designated terrorist organization and were taken in defense of vital U.S. national interests and in the collective self-defense of other nations who have long suffered due to the narcotics trafficking and violent cartel activities of such organizations,” she said.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell echoed that to the Journal, denying that any informed lawyers had raised red flags and claiming the administration stands on “firm legal ground.”

Legal experts and bipartisan lawmakers have piled on, arguing the actions breach both U.S. and international law.

Congress has greenlit military force against terror groups in the Middle East, but nothing similar covers Latin American cartels.

“Maybe the boat was coming here. Maybe it wasn’t.

But nobody’s even asking whether we need to prove that. We just blow them up,” Sen. Rand Paul told Politico.

The controversy underscores deepening tensions within the administration over aggressive anti-drug tactics, as Trump’s team grapples with balancing security goals against legal boundaries.

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