“I don’t know what they have, but whatever they have, we’d certainly release, no problem,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “You know, we stopped — every boat we knock out, we save 25,000 American lives.”

Hegseth gave the order to “kill everybody” aboard the vessel, the Washington Post reported late last month. After the initial strike killed most on board, two men remained hanging on to the vessel. Joint Special Operations Command leader Adm. Mitch Bradley then ordered the second strike, the White House said.

Trump said he supported the decision to “knock out the boats” when asked about whether he wanted the survivors killed in a follow-up strike.

“No, I support the decision to knock out the boats and whoever is piloting those boats. Most of them are gone, but whoever’s piloting those boats, they’re guilty of trying to kill people in our country,” he said.

The president suggested neither Bradley nor Hegseth should be punished for the second strike.

“I think you’re going to find that this is war, that these people were killing our people by the millions,” Trump said.

“I think you’re going to find that there’s a very receptive ear to doing exactly what they’re doing, taking out those boats,” Trump said. “And very soon, we’re going to start doing it on land too.”

The president posted a video of the first strike on Truth Social after the Sept. 2 operation. At the time, he did not suggest there were multiple strikes in his social media post. He said U.S. forces “conducted a kinetic strike” that killed “11 terrorists.”

Hegseth has said that he did not “stick around” for the second strike, which many have called illegal.

TRUMP OPPOSED TO FOLLOW-UP STRIKES ON ALLEGED DRUG BOATS AMID HEGSETH SCRUTINY

“I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said during a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we’ve got a lot of things to do. So I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs, so I moved on to my next meeting.”

“A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the decision, which he had the complete authority to do, and by the way, Adm. Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth added.