The drone strikes on suspected drug-trafficking boats appear to have been just one source of tension in a fraught relationship.
The sudden retirement of the four-star admiral who has commanded U.S. military operations in the Caribbean has been a troubling aspect of the Trump administration’s drone-strike campaign, which has not been authorized by Congress and has so far resulted in the deaths of an estimated 83 people in attacks on 22 suspected drug-trafficking boats. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the commander, Admiral Alvin “Bull” Holsey, was pushed into retirement by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The two are said to have butted heads from the time Hegseth entered the Pentagon, not long after Holsey took over U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) in the latter half of 2024.
The Journal says that “Holsey had initial concerns about the legality of lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, according to former officials aware of the discussions” between the admiral and the defense secretary. But to be clear, there is no quote from Holsey confirming that, nor has the admiral made any public statement against the drone-strike operation.
There may also have been command control issues. The report states:
Late in the summer, as the military began striking alleged drug boats, Holsey was initially concerned about murky legal authority for the boat strike campaign, according to former officials. With other military units under separate chains of command also involved, including elite special operations units, Holsey objected that parts of the operations fell outside his direct control, they said.
If the drone strikes ordered by Hegseth were an important factor in Holsey’s retirement, which takes effect next week (December 12), the report suggests that this is better understood as the last straw in a strained relationship, not a standalone rupture.
The admiral, who at 60 is fifteen years older than the secretary, is a helicopter pilot who has been in the Navy since 1988, when he was commissioned through an ROTC program at Morehouse College. If the Journal report is accurately quoting Hegseth, Holsey can’t have been thrilled when the new secretary told him and other veteran officers, upon meeting them via secure video conference, “You’re either on the team or you’re not. When you get an order, you move out fast and don’t ask questions.”
In March, when Trump told Congress he wanted to “reclaim” the Panama Canal, the Journal report says “Hegseth ordered Holsey to develop military options to ensure unfettered access” to the canal. Soon, Hegseth came to believe Holsey wasn’t moving quickly enough and suspected Holsey of leaking when there were media reports about the options. Nevertheless, the two are said to have been on good terms when they visited the canal in April. (The report includes a picture of them together there, at the Miraflores Locks.)
But the report also says Hegseth had lost confidence in Holsey before the drone-strike campaign and was looking to replace him. It adds that the tension between the two men led to “a confrontation” (not further described) at a meeting in early October.
Hegseth announced Holsey’s retirement on October 16. The secretary then praised Holsey as having “exemplified the highest standards of naval leadership.”
At his 2024 Senate confirmation hearing, Holsey argued for a more aggressive approach to “dismantle[ing] the drug cartels.” He was enthusiastic about interdiction and “conducting counterdrug missions.” Of course, up to that point, this meant stopping the drug boats, seizing their contraband, and arresting or extraditing them for prosecution.
The Journal report notes that Colonel Paul Meagher, SOUTHCOM’s judge advocate general (its top military lawyer) was concerned, at least initially, about the drone-strike campaign, fearing it precariously “stretched the boundaries of the legal definition of combatants engaged in military hostilities.”