Trump discusses Venezuela with advisers as Hegseth distances himself from second strike on suspected drug boat –as it happened

This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:

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  White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that US forces launched a second strike on a suspected drug-trafficking vessel on 2 September, but described it as legal “self-defense to protect Americans”.

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  Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary who ordered the attack, distanced himself from the commander who carried out the second strike, suggesting that the Pentagon supported the commander, but that he had made the decision to kill shipwreck survivors, which is a war crime.

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  Hegseth previously told his former colleague at Fox & Friends he had monitored the attack in real time. “I watched it live,” Hegseth said the morning after the strikes.

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  US Navy vice admiral Frank Bradley, who was the commander in charge of the attack, will provide a classified briefing to lawmakers on Thursday.

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  A federal appeals court ruled today that Trump’s former personal lawyer, Alina Habba, is serving unlawfully as the US attorney for the district of New Jersey.

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  The US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, was criticized on Monday for using language on social media that closely echoes dehumanizing terms for immigrants deployed by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

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  The Canadian publisher of the Franklin the Turtle books, a series for children, has condemned the “unauthorized” use of the beloved character’s image by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

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  Mark Kelly, the Democratic senator from Arizona, said that Trump’s accusation that he is guilty of Seditious behavior, punishable by death” has led to a new wave of threats against him and his wife, Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt in 2011.

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US Navy vice admiral Frank Bradley will provide a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military on Thursday as they investigate a US military attack on a boat allegedly carrying drugs that included a second strike that killed two survivors.

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Bradley, who was commander of Joint Special Operations Command at the time of the 2 September attack, ordered the follow-up strike, the White House said Monday as it defended the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth from accusations that he had ordered a war crime.

Mike Rogers, the Republican chair of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was “satisfied” following a conversation with Hegseth on the attack, but that he also wanted to hear from Bradley.

n “We’ll all have clarity on Thursday afternoon,” Rogers said.

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Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, suggested on Monday that he did not give a direct command to have two survivors of a strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat killed in a follow-up attack.

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But the morning after the attack, of 3 September, Hegseth told his former colleagues on the morning show Fox & Friends that he had monitored the operation in real time.

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“I can tell you that was definitely not artificial intelligence: I watched it live,” Hegseth said.

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On Sunday, Donald Trump told reporters that Hegseth had told him that he did not order a second strike to kill “the two men”.

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“He said he did not say that, and I believe him,” Trump said, referring to a verbal order from Hegseth to conduct a second strike once the survivors were spotted. “He said he didn’t do it, he said he never said it.”

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The US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, was criticized on Monday for using language on social media that closely echoes dehumanizing terms for immigrants deployed by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.

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“I just met with the President,” Noem wrote on her official government X account on Monday.

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“I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” she added.

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“This language is virtually indistinguishable from what you’d find on Stormfront,” Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a lawyer and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, responded, making reference to a neo-Nazi internet forum.

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Noem’s post went on to describe immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers as “foreign invaders” who aim “to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.”

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The homeland security secretary contrasted those hoping to find refuge in the United States today with “Our forefathers” who “built this nation”. She did not address the fact that the European colonists who founded the country were themselves foreign invaders who drove out the native population and settled on stolen land.

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In June, Donald Trump signed a proclamation to implement a new travel ban that fully or partially “restricted the entry of foreign nationals” from 19 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

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The Canadian publisher of the Franklin the Turtle books, a series for children, has condemned the “unauthorized” use of the beloved character’s image by the US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.

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In a social media post on Sunday, Hegseth made light of a series of deadly US strikes on the boats of suspected drug smugglers off Venezuela by posting the mock cover of a new entry in the series: “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists”, with an image of the turtle, wearing a US military uniform, firing a rocket-propelled grenade at armed drug runners.

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“Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity,” the publisher Kids Can Press said in a statement. “We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent, or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.”

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The Canadian author of all 30 books in the Franklin series, Paulette Bourgeois, is a former journalist who worked as a freelance writer in Washington DC before coming up with the idea for the character while watching an episode of the sit-com M*A*S*H.

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The US Senate plans to vote next week on the on-again, off-again, on-again nomination of Jared Isaacman, a private astronaut and ally of Elon Musk, for the post of Nasa administrator.

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Ted Cruz, the chairman of the Senate committee on commerce, science and transportation announced on Monday that the confirmation vote is now scheduled for next Monday, 8 December.

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Isaacman’s nomination was previously pulled by Donald Trump in May, just days after Musk’s official departure from the White House, where the SpaceX CEO had burned bridges during his term as a “special government employee” overseeing the wholesale destruction of government agencies.

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Without explanation, Trump reversed course last month and renominated Isaacman, after letting Nasa languish for months with Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, serving in a dual role as acting Nasa administrator.

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Isaacman’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for this Wednesday.

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He has the support of dozens of former Nasa astronauts who sent a letter to the committee calling for his confirmation last week. One of the signatories is Scott Kelly, whose identical twin brother Mark is the Democratic senator from Arizona under attack by Trump.

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