Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth complained Tuesday after a reporter pressed him on whether President Donald Trump had capitulated on his demand for Iran to unconditionally surrender, chastising the reporter for deviating from his initially “nice” remarks.
“I want to first express my gratitude and admiration for the work you do and for everyone involved in our armed forces, and also for the accomplishments of Operation Epic Fury, which I think are too often dismissed too lightly,” the reporter said when called upon by Hegseth. “But those accomplishments don't obscure, I think, a central default that has occurred here.”
The reporter went on to quote Trump’s remarks made on the first day of Operation Epic Fury, when he spoke directly to Iranians and called on them to “take over your government.” A week later on March 6, Trump said there would be “no deal with Iran except unconditional surrender.”
“What happens to that pledge to the Iranians?” the reporter asked. “When did the president decide to capitulate on his demand for unconditional surrender?”
Hegseth apparently wasn’t pleased with the question.
“I wouldn't – I wouldn't... you started out nicely, but you ended exactly where we knew you would end,” Hegseth said.
“The president hasn't capitulated on anything. He holds the cards, we maintain the upper hand, and Project Freedom only strengthens that hand. So he will ensure that whatever deal is made or whatever end state is reached ensures that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. What the Iranian people take advantage of after the fact is up to them.”
Project Freedom is a new U.S. naval operation announced by Trump on Sunday and enacted on Monday designed to force commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping waterway through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows. Despite Hegseth’s claim that the U.S. maintains “the upper hand” in the U.S. war against Iran, countless analysts have said otherwise.