Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced at a meeting of an anti-cartel coalition in Panama that the group’s motto would be, “We do bad things to bad people.”
Hegseth, 46, on Wednesday spoke to civilian defense leaders and generals from 18 other countries about the goal of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition: “to degrade, dismantle, and destroy narco-terrorist networks.”
The ACCC, which first met in March, is part of the Shield of the Americas alliance that the Trump administration formed earlier this year.
“Today, we launched the motto of the ACCC, which is: ‘We do bad things to bad people,’” Hegseth said after touring the U.S.- and Panamanian-run Jungle Operations Training Course near the Panama Canal.
“Because for too long, bad people did bad things to good people inside the United States of America and across Central and South America, and we are going to empower great Americans and great partners to do really good stuff and be very capable at bringing violence against drug cartels and designated terrorist organizations, because we’re dead serious about securing the homeland,” Hegseth added.
The motto Hegseth “launched” was already in use.
During the Global War on Terrorism, Prince Harry, who deployed twice to Afghanistan while in the British Army, was photographed in February 2008 wearing a hat bearing an American flag on the front and that motto on the back.
The saying—and several slightly altered versions of it—also appears on unofficial military-themed shirts, patches, and stickers. Hats like Prince Harry’s are also for sale.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether Hegseth, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was aware that the motto had been previously used.
Hegseth announced a development Wednesday for the ACCC: that Honduras and Colombia had joined countries like Ecuador and Guatemala in agreeing to joint military operations with the U.S. against suspected drug trafficking groups.
Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela and Canada are still not in the continental alliance, which is primarily composed of right-wing governments.
