Secretary Pete Hegseth Defends Drug Boat Strikes, Hails Trump as ‘Heir’ to Reagan Doctrine
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a highly anticipated keynote address at the 2025 Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, on Saturday, where he vigorously defended the administration’s controversial military strikes on alleged drug cartel vessels and declared President Donald Trump the true political successor to Ronald Reagan. The address, delivered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, laid out a defense strategy focused narrowly on national interest and military supremacy, dismissing other priorities as distractions.
The most forceful section of the Secretary’s speech was his justification for the ongoing campaign of strikes on suspected drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which have resulted in over eighty deaths and drawn intense scrutiny from lawmakers over legality and rules of engagement. “If you’re working for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you,” Mr. Hegseth declared, comparing the fight against these networks to the post-9/11 war on terror. He dismissed critics’ concerns, asserting that President Trump “can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation’s interests.”
Mr. Hegseth also used the platform to align President Trump directly with the former Republican President, calling him the “true and rightful heir” to Reagan’s “peace through strength” foreign policy doctrine. He argued that, like Reagan, President Trump is willing to negotiate with rivals, citing ongoing peace talks between Russia and Ukraine as an example of successful diplomacy under the threat of force. The Secretary furthermore reaffirmed the administration’s new National Security Strategy, which prioritizes the defense of the homeland and the Western Hemisphere. In a strong message to the defense establishment, Mr. Hegseth vowed that the department would no longer be distracted by what he termed “woke moralizing,” “climate change worship,” or “feckless nation building,” stating that the military’s sole focus must be to deter war and defend the nation.
