Trump news at a glance: Hegseth scrutinized over boat strikes as first formal complaint filed by victim’s family

Trump administration ‘selling out’ admiral over boat strikes, officials say

The Pentagon scapegoated a navy admiral for the extrajudicial double-tap strike that killed survivors of a 2 September attack on an alleged drug boat and vowed to continue operations, even as lawmakers investigate whether the attack constituted a war crime.

During a cabinet meeting alongside Donald Trump on Tuesday, Pete Hegseth said: “We’ve only just begun striking narco boats and putting narco terrorists at the bottom of the ocean.” He defended Bradley, who is set to provide a classified briefing to lawmakers overseeing the military on Thursday, saying Trump “always has our back” and that “we always have the back of our commanders who are making decisions in difficult situations”.

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Trump threatens strikes on any country he claims makes drugs for US

Donald Trump warned that any country he believes is making drugs destined illegally for the US is vulnerable to a military attack. The US president’s comments came during a question-and-answer session at the White House at which he also said military strikes on land targets inside Venezuela would “start very soon”. Trump said he saw any country producing drugs for contraband as fair game, echoing previous saber-rattling directed at Mexico.

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Family of victim in Trump drug boat killings files first formal complaint

Exclusive: A family in Colombia filed a petition on Tuesday with the Washington DC-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the Colombian citizen Alejandro Carranza Medina was illegally killed in a US airstrike on 15 September.

The petition marks the first formal complaint over the airstrikes by the Trump administration against suspected drug boats, attacks that the White House says are justified under a novel interpretation of law.

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Donald Trump called Somali immigrants “garbage” and said they should be sent back home in a rant that came as the administration is reportedly increasing immigration enforcement against undocumented Somalis in Minnesota. In a xenophobic rant during a cabinet meeting, Trump went off on Somalis and Ilhan Omar, the congressional representative who is from Somalia and is a US citizen. He said Somalia “stinks” and is “no good for a reason”.

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Billionaires donate $6.25bn to encourage families to claim ‘Trump Accounts’

Michael and Susan Dell’s donation aims to provide 25 million American children under 10 an incentive to claim the new investment accounts for children created as part of Donald Trump’s tax and spending legislation. The historic gift has little precedent, with few single charitable commitments in the past 25 years exceeding $1bn, much less multiple billions.

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Trump officials threaten to withhold Snap funds from Democratic-led states

The Trump administration has threatened to suspend Snap food assistance to several Democratic-led states unless they turn over recipient data to the federal government. The agriculture secretary said that the USDA could begin blocking funds as early as next week if Democratic-led states continue to reject federal requests for Snap recipient data – information that includes immigration status and social security numbers.

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