All posts tagged "Hegseth"

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's move to block the promotions of high-ranking service members is "even worse than it looks," according to political analyst and longtime federal trial attorney Sabrina Haake, who argues the real motive behind the blocked promotions is more dangerous than the racial and gender bias suggested by mainstream coverage.

Writing in her Substack newsletter, The Haake Take, Haake reported that Hegseth had blocked career professionals with exemplary records who were on track to become one-star generals and admirals — and contended that the secretary has no clear legal authority to do so.

Haake laid out the statutory problem in detail. Congress, she wrote, entrusted military promotions largely to the respective promotion boards and the Secretaries of the Military Departments, not the Secretary of Defense. While federal law gives the president removal authority, she noted that a longstanding executive order limits the defense secretary's removal authority to grades below colonel or captain — not the general and admiral promotions Hegseth has blocked. The Pentagon's own regulations, she added, restrict the grounds for removing an officer from a promotions list to specific circumstances like moral, mental, or professional deficiencies, "none of which were present in Hegseth's removals."...

Katherine Thompson, a former senior Trump administration official at the Pentagon under Hegseth, is raising alarm bells about classified information that suggests the U.S. military faces far more serious supply challenges than the public has been told, particularly regarding critical munitions needed to counter threats from both Iran and China.

Appearing on MS NOW, Thompson was described by the host as a "unicorn"—a rare Trump insider willing to publicly discuss concerns within the administration about the ongoing Iran conflict and military readiness.

She said that, although people don't like to admit it, "we are subject to scarcity" when it comes to weaponry, especially as we have China "on the rise." The host chimed in that the idea was "terrifying," and Thompson agreed....

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth called in hundreds of top military brass last week to deliver a lecture on the "ethos of war" and scold them for being too fat. Now, Pentagon officials confirmed "everyone" was ordered to watch the speech "in full."

Laura Rozen, formerly of Politico, who runs her own Substack, "Diplomatic," confirmed Thursday, “This morning, every DOD employee was instructed to certify, in writing, [that] they have watched Hegseth’s speech" from last week’s Quantico meeting.

Politico national security reporter Paul McLeary followed up on Rozen's reporting, saying that he was able to confirm "everyone was ordered to certify that they watched Hegseth's recent Quantico speech in full."...

A high profile member of Donald Trump's Cabinet is on the edge of losing his job after, once again, causing the White House headaches at a time when things were going well, thereby infuriating Trump's inner circle.

Pete Hegseth's unilateral decision to delay a weapons shipment to Ukraine which caught the White House by surprise, has become another black mark on his tenure as defense secretary that could lead to his ouster.

That is according to MSNBC "Morning Joe" co-host Jonathan Lemire who told the panel on Thursday morning that White House insiders –– including Donald Trump's powerful chief of staff Susie Wiles –– are "exasperated."

As Lemire noted, Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, got off to a rough start by not being forthcoming before his nomination hearings when he failed to let the White House know about a police report alleging sexual assault.

Since then, every time the Trump White House seems to be having a run of good news, something has come up with Hegseth that has forced the White House to scramble.

With Lemire telling co-host Joe Scarborough, "There is real anger here" over the Ukraine debacle, Scarborough pointed out, "It bears repeating and underlining that Pete Hegseth has had a history in his short term as a nominee," and accused the SecDef of exasperating people inside the White House.

"Again, lying and certainly not being forthcoming about the problems that he had had in the past about court documents. I mean, surprising the Trump transition team time and time again, then doing it again with Signalgate."

"I mean, you talk to people inside the White House like I know you have, they'll say we had a great two months and we controlled the agenda and then Pete Hegseth screwed it up with Signalgate, and now here we have it again," he added.

"You tick through just a few of the examples that really exasperated Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and others in the White House think tired of some of the mistakes from Hegseth," Lemire agreed. "Now, look, Hegseth is very popular among the MAGA base due to his time at Fox News."

"So there's there is affection there for him, but that only gets you so far if you continue to alienate the commander in chief, your time in that post may be limited," he continued. "Trump is loath to fire people so far this time around. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz was the one exception here; he wasn't popular in most Trump circles. But right now, I think that, you know, Hegseth is on a, you know, a short leash, if you will, from the Oval Office."

You can watch below or at the link here....

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing yet another growing revolt from senators on both sides of the aisle that is being exacerbated by his apparent unilateral decision to delay a shipment scheduled weapons to Ukraine.

During an appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Politico's Paul McCleary expanded upon his Wednesday report where he noted growing distrust by European allies of Donald Trump's defense chief by noting that same distrust is growing among Republican lawmakers.

After sharing a clip of Trump saying he had no idea about the weapons shipment snafu, "Way Too Early" host Ali Vitali asked McCleary what is the state of Hegseth's standing with Congress.

With Vitali noting that Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) stated on Wednesday that Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, is "out of his depth," she pressed her guest, " Is that the kind of buyer's remorse that you're hearing from Republicans?"

"There's a lot of frustration on Capitol Hill among Democrats, for sure, and increasingly among Republicans who are just not getting briefed by the Pentagon," McCleary reported. "Normally, there's a pretty steady drumbeat of Pentagon officials, uniformed civilians going up to Capitol Hill, briefing senators –– that's not really happening under this administration."

"They bill themselves as the most transparent Pentagon in history but, I mean, one, they're not talking to the press and they're also not briefing the Hill," he added. "And it's been ... six months and that's really having an effect and senators are really starting to push back."

You can watch below or at the link....