A top War Department official tells Just the News that air strikes ordered by President Donald Trump on drug-running boats in the Caribbean have killed 87 narcoterrorists, and she also is repudiating one of America’s most famous news outlets for “scummy reporting” on the subject.

Washington Post story slammed by even New York Times

War Department Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson sharply criticized The Washington Post for a report — since disputed by the top admiral for the U.S. military mission against Venezuelan drug cartels — that Secretary Pete Hegseth had suggested killing survivors of a boat hit by missiles. The New York Times recently clobbered the Post's story.

"It's incredibly frustrating," Wilson said of the recent Post story. "But, you know, I think that people who work in a Trump administration are unfortunately very used to it. We have seen the mainstream media lie time and time again about this President's accomplishments, and this administration is no different. So we will continue to battle the fake news and push back.

"And that Washington Post story that you mentioned was particularly egregious. They attributed a quote to the Secretary of War that he never said. That is absolutely scummy journalism, and anyone who reads The Washington Post should rethink where they're getting their news. Thankfully, I think a lot of their readers have gone elsewhere because they've realized they can't trust outlets like The Washington Post anymore."

Wilson oversees a rapid response operation that responds quickly to news media reports that the War Department deems inaccurate or misleading.

She also has led a team that has welcomed a new generation of media reporters to the Pentagon after legacy media organizations that ran the agency's press pool for decades abandoned their coverage in dispute over overreaction to the rules for press credentials set by Hegseth's team. The rules Hegseth's team never propounded, despite legacy media's unsupported objections, include the pre-publication review of stories the administration might have found objectionable. The "new" rules simply asked reporters to act within the law regarding the solicitation of classified material. 

"A total mind shift"

Wilson touted the work that the military has done in combating drug boats trying to bring fentanyl to the U.S. shores from Venezuelan cartels, and provided new statistics on its successes. She said both Americans and their troops on the front lines are embracing the new mission led by the military's Southern Command.

"We've seen a total mind shift, and I think it's been really important for our warriors that are down in this area, down in Central America and South America, deployed there," she explained. "Previously, they've been working on a lot of stuff like climate change. That's kind of what SouthCom was known for."

"Now, SouthCom is actively engaging with these Narco terrorists, taking out 87 Narco terrorists to date and making sure that the American people are kept safe," she added. "And at the end of the day, that's what our warriors signed up to do, and that's what President Trump wants them to be able to do unencumbered."

A Rasmussen Reports poll this fall showed 62% of Americans supported using the U.S. military to strike drug boats. President Donald Trump suggested he may expand the mission from the seas to the land.

Wilson said the War Department is focused on the current air strikes but has contingencies for any land operations the president orders.

"If you are a narcoterrorist, no matter what country you're from, if Venezuela or another country, and you wish to poison the American people, we will hunt you, and we will kill you," she said. "President Trump designated these groups as designated terrorist organizations, and that allows us at the Department of War to really take this threat a lot more seriously than previous administrations have taken it."

Wilson: "Our warriors are standing by"

"We have a contingency for everything. We provide the President with options. So a lot of the asset build-up you're seeing down there in the SouthCom region in the Caribbean, now we've got the Ford carrier strike group down there, is to do just that, to provide the President with options so that if the Commander-in-Chief directs the Department of War to take action, we are ready," she added. "Our warriors are standing by. And I will tell you, no one will be waiting on the Department of War should the time come for us to act."