Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sparked outrage Friday after announcing that his agency, under the direction of President Donald Trump, carried out a lethal strike late Thursday night on a sea vessel suspected of “narcotics smuggling,” killing six.

“If you are a narco-terrorist smuggling drugs in our hemisphere, we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,” Hegseth wrote in a social media post on X, alongside a video of the deadly strike. “Day or NIGHT, we will map your networks, track your people, hunt you down, and kill you.”

Starting last month, the Trump administration has authorized ten strikes on suspected drug vessels headed toward the United States, killing at least 43 people.

The execution-style strikes have seen bi-partisan condemnation for potentially being a violation of international law, and with the latest strike, some critics began to speak to Hegseth’s potential criminal culpability and outright accuse him of being a “criminal.”

“Extrajudicial killing is wrong, Pete. You’re a criminal,” wrote Middle East-based journalist Courtney Bonneau in a social media post on X Friday. “Also, this text seems like it’s from ChatGPT. Lame.”

Others, like Sarah Rumpf, editor at Mediaite, highlighted the fact that Congress – which holds the explicit authority to declare war – had not had a say in authorizing the strikes.

“Six more illegal murders by our government,” Rumpf wrote in a social media post on X Friday. “Congress has not declared war. They have not shown any imminent danger to US vessels etc. Membership in a gang or transporting/dealing drugs, even if true, are not death penalty crimes.”

Beyond the lack of due process afforded to those killed in Trump’s military strikes on suspected drug-smuggling vessels, critics have also noted that the administration omitted key details from its accounts, including an allegation from a former Trump official that one targeted vessel was retreating before it was struck.

Critics have also questioned whether those killed in the strikes were actually complicit in drug smuggling, with some raising eyebrows over the White House’s decision to not prosecute two captured survivors of one of the strikes.

“Hegseth says, ‘we will treat you like we treat Al-Qaeda,’ but forgets that Congress passed an authorization against the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks,”

wrote

Justin Amash, a former Republican member of Congress. “Congress has passed no such authorization for this campaign or against ‘terrorists’ generally. He’s simply breaking the law.”