Live updates: Trump administration news and the latest on Ukraine, Venezuela | CNN

The White House said Monday that Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, commander of the US Special Operations Command, was responsible for ordering a second, targeted strike on an alleged drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after the first strike did not kill everyone aboard.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended Bradley, who she said was “well within his authority” to order the second strike, which CNN has reported killed the remaining crew on board. The strike has generated questions on both sides of the political aisle about whether the administration was acting within the bounds of the law, with some Democrats calling it an apparent war crime.

She added that President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war.”

Pressed on the legal justification for the strike, Leavitt said it was “conducted in self-defense to protect Americans” and was carried out “in international waters and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.”

Trump told reporters Sunday evening that he personally would not have wanted a second strike and seemed to cast doubt on the idea Hegseth had ordered it.

“No. 1, I don’t know that that happened, and Pete said he did not want them — he didn’t even know what people were talking about,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “So, we’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike.”

The US military has conducted 20 known strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and amassed significant military forces in the region as the president weighs next steps in Venezuela. Top Trump officials, including Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, will meet with the president later Monday evening.