diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/delete/delete.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/delete/delete.go
index f53bb5b7f80..2c1887e6ac0 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/delete/delete.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/kubectl/pkg/cmd/delete/delete.go
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ var (
 		kubectl delete -k dir
 
 		# Delete resources from all files that end with '.json' - i.e. expand wildcard characters in file names
-		kubectl apply -f '*.json'
+		kubectl delete -f '*.json'
 
 		# Delete a pod based on the type and name in the JSON passed into stdin
 		cat pod.json | kubectl delete -f -