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By Josh HammerShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberEditor's note: This is a preview of The Josh Hammer Report. Politics, law, and culture collide as Newsweek Senior Editor-at-Large Josh Hammer charts a path forward for American conservatism and exposes the woke Left. A voice for the New Right, Hammer delivers blistering commentary straight to your inbox every Wednesday.
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At some point, the American Left must decide whether it still believes the United States has a right to defend itself, its interests, and its citizens. The latest round of performative outrage—this time, directed at Secretary of War Pete Hegseth over a second precision strike on a narco-terrorist vessel in the Caribbean Sea this past September—makes clear that much of our legacy media would prefer the answer be "no."
The accusation is as predictable as it is unserious: Hegseth, we are now told, is a "war criminal." Why? Because under presidential authorization and pursuant to ongoing counter-cartel operations against narco-terrorists in the Caribbean, U.S. forces executed a follow-up strike on a boat ferrying fentanyl-running, human-smuggling narco-terrorists—actors who have wrought more death on our streets than most hostile regimes abroad. Many of the the same pundits who moralize about "democracy" between commercial breaks have suddenly discovered a novel legal theory under which defending the American homeland is a grave prosecutable offense.
This is nonsense—and dangerous nonsense, at that. And it betrays a fundamental misunderstanding, willful or otherwise, of the Article II commander-in-chief power.
The Framers did not design a national security posture that forces the president to petition cable-news bookers for permission to act—even preemptively or prophylactically—in the national interest. The Constitution vests the executive with the power—and indeed the solemn duty—to repel threats, protect commerce, and secure the nation against those who would do it harm. It's all explained clearly by Alexander Hamilton in The Federalist No. 70, in which he explained: "That unity is conducive to energy will not be disputed. Decision, activity, secrecy, and despatch will generally characterize the proceedings of one man in a much more eminent degree than the proceedings of any greater number."
Translation: The president, and his Cabinet, must at times act swiftly and decisively to defend the nation. This ought to be axiomatic to anyone with even a rudimentary conception of American constitutionalism. This understanding has been confirmed repeatly by the U.S. Supreme Court. The president's constitutionally legitimate war-waging powers certainly encompass targeted interdictions against non-state actors operating outside U.S. borders and menacing our citizens.
Hegseth’s critics want to re-litigate Vietnam-era debates about executive power without acknowledging the world as it is: Cartels today are not mere criminal syndicates. They are militarized, politically influential transnational organizations that destabilize entire regions. They are, in every meaningful sense of the term, narco-terrorists. And when intelligence confirms that one of their vessels is engaged in armed smuggling operations, the president need not convene an obstreperous congressional committee before acting in such a manner to defend the American people.
But the Left cannot resist turning every question of national security into a morality play starring America as the villain. The same commentators who defend "harm reduction" at home suddenly clutch their pearls when the U.S. military reduces the harm posed by fentanyl-trafficking thugs in the near-abroad. The same editorial pages that applaud drone strikes against foreign jihadists—so long as a progressive like Barack Obama is in the Oval Office—now pretend that maritime counter-terror operations amount to My Lai 2.0.
What Hegseth did—more precisely, what the administration authorized him to carry out—is not a crime. It is policy. It is constitutional. And it is in the national interest.
Nor, contra some cable news "experts," is there any legal distinction between the first and second strikes in September. If the relevant legal threshold for the strike—such as the imminent threat of lethal action against the American homeland, or something along those lines—was met the first time, then it would be met the second time as well. To pretend otherwise—that the initial strike is somehow legitimate but not a second strike—is to fall prey to the same morally dilapidated and legally coherent logic as leftists when they support on-demand abortion but then suddenly care a lot for a baby that survives a botched abortion.
Make it make sense.
We live in an era of border chaos, cartel empowerment, and corrosive moral relativism. The presidency must not be cowed by editorial board tantrums. The constitutional order requires a strong executive—precisely the sort of executive who does not blink when American lives and sovereignty are on the line.
The Left may not like that. But the Constitution does not care.
To keep up with me, follow me on X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can listen to all episodes of "The Josh Hammer Show" on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts—as well as select radio stations across the country. You can also now watch all episodes of "The Josh Hammer Show" at Newsweek's YouTube page (as well as at Salem News Channel, due to our partnership with Salem Media Group)! If you haven't already done so, make sure to also order my book, Israel and Civilization: The Fate of the Jewish Nation and the Destiny of the West! Signed copies of the book are also available for purchase.
Have a great rest of your week! We'll see you again next week.
Spotlight
...How to Remain Grounded and Thankful Amid the Chaos
In a year marked by political vitriol in seemingly every conversation, a relentless scourge of political violence, and the highest-profile political assassination since 1968, Thanksgiving arrives just in time. Truthfully, it always does. And it always reminds us that long before Americans were addicted to constant clickbait-driven outrage, ours was a nation rooted in gratitude.
That sentiment can feel pretty unfamiliar—perhaps even foreign—these days. Our national political and cultural discourse, especially online, has degenerated into a permanent fever dream. Social media, which at its advent offered the promise of greater community and interpersonal connection, now thrives on the adrenaline rush of digital combat. Seemingly every news cycle and every social media feed brings more reason to believe America is splintering into warring political tribes.
Yet Thanksgiving, that most quintessential and timeless of American holidays, endures. Thanksgiving, and the broader holiday season that it kicks off, is our annual reminder that gratitude is not merely just one sentiment among many—it is our core, the glue holding us together. And the more we forget this, the more we risk an irrevocable national unraveling.
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