- Pete Hegseth urged troops to resist unlawful orders in 2016.
- Comments surfaced recently, causing public attention.
- Hegseth criticized Democrats but contradicted himself.
The US executions of suspected drug traffickers in boats off the coast of Venezuela and Columbia have sparked a heated political discussion about whether US soldiers should defy illegal orders.
Hegseth clarified that service members did, in fact, have a duty to disobey any illegal orders in response to Trump's remarks during a debate in March 2016, while Trump was a Republican presidential contender, in a video that CNN was able to uncover.
In an appearance on Fox & Friends, where he would later become a host, Hegseth, a Fox News contributor at the time, stated,
"You're not just gonna follow that order if it's unlawful."
Later that month, he made similar remarks during an interview on Fox Business.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump had promised that if he were elected president, US military forces would carry out instructions that included killing terrorists' families and bringing back prohibited kinds of torture.
“The military’s not gonna follow illegal orders,”
Hegseth said of Trump’s claim, which the candidate later walked back.
Due to a second strike on an accused drug boat on September 2 that claimed the lives of two survivors of a strike that had occurred less than an hour earlier, Hegseth is currently involved in a dispute. Over 80 people have reportedly been killed in the administration's 20 strikes in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which it claims are drug smugglers without providing any proof.
Critics have characterized the attacks as extrajudicial and illegal killings, pointing out that drug smuggling is not a crime that may result in execution without a trial, even if it is proven. The administration has labeled a number of organizations as "narco-terrorists" in order to defend its attacks.
Hegseth has chastised Democrats in recent weeks for voicing similar worries to his own prior to Trump's election.
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and five other Democrats with military histories released a video last month that warned of internal "threats to our constitution" and urged military troops to defy "illegal orders" from the Trump administration.
Following Trump's objection that Kelly and the other congressmen "should be in jail right now" and that they may have engaged in "seditious behavior, punishable by death," the Pentagon declared it was opening an inquiry into Kelly.
The Democratic politicians, according to Hegseth, are disseminating "despicable, reckless, and false" information. He likened alleged drug smugglers to terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida on Saturday.
“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. Let there be no doubt about it,”
Hegseth said at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi valley, California.
He disregarded worries that the strikes violated international law and added that Trump has the authority to use force "as he sees fit."
“President Trump can and will take decisive military action as he sees fit to defend our nation’s interests. Let no country on Earth doubt that for a moment,”
he said.
However, he contended in 2016 that the military was required to reject orders that were unlawful and that service personnel might be prosecuted for doing so.
“Here’s the problem with Trump,”
Hegseth told the Megyn Kelly show on Fox after the debate in which Trump made the comments.
“He says: ‘Go ahead and kill the family. Go ahead and torture. Go ahead and go further than waterboarding.’ What happens when people follow those orders, or don’t follow them? It’s not clear that Donald Trump will have their back.
Donald Trump is oftentimes about Donald Trump,”
he said, adding: “
“If you’re not changing the law, and you’re just saying it, you create even more ambiguity.”
The administration's stance that the Democratic lawmakers who released the video "sowed doubt in a clear chain of command, which is reckless, dangerous, and deeply irresponsible for an elected official" was reiterated by White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in a statement to CNN. She also stated that
"the military already has clear procedures for handling unlawful orders, but seditious Democrats injected ambiguity."
As reported last week, Hegseth made the same claim at a Silicon Valley Liberty Forum event in April 2016, stating that the US military "won't follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief." He went on to say that the military's duty and moral principles included refusing to carry out unlawful orders.
He referred to the Democratic MPs who made that claim as the "Seditious Six" last month.
Pete Hegseth blamed the" Seditious Six" Popular lawgivers Sen. Mark Kelly( D- AZ), Sen. Elissa Slotkin( D- MI), Rep. Jason Crow( D- CO), Rep. Chris Deluzio( D- PA), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan( D- PA), and Sen. Tim Kaine( D- VA) during a December 2, 2025 White House Cabinet meeting.
Hegseth called their conduct" reckless, dangerous, and profoundly reckless," criminating them of undermining the chain of command and creating distrust in the Armed Forces to politically target Trump; Pentagon prophet Kingsley Wilson distinguished Hegseth's once commentary as upholding legal norms, not Popular" politically motivated" rhetoric.
Democrats resurfaced Hegseth's 2016 Fox News remarks praising colors for refusing" unlawful orders from their commander- in- chief," with Kelly asking" What has changed?" and Slotkin/ Crow lacing clips on social media to punctuate inconsistency amid boat strike difficulties.