According to the New York Times, Pete Hegseth, a national guard veteran, former Fox News’s former weekend host, began his work at the Pentagon with the determination to show “Trump” than President Trump.
President Donald Trump was skeptical about the value of NATO and European allies, so the Pentagon under Hegseth had considered plans that the United States would abandon the role of the NATO military supervision. After Mr. Trump issued the executive decree targeting transgender people, Hegseth issued a ban on transgender soldiers.
Mr. Trump supported Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, the Pentagon also planned to hold a sensitive press conference to give Mr. Musk a direct view of the way the military will fight in a potential battle – a step with potential value for any entrepreneur who benefits there.
Of all these efforts, Hegseth was restrained, by Republican members in the National Assembly, by the Court or even Mr. Trump himself. The US president made it clear on March 21 that he was surprised by the New York Times information about the Pentagon’s press conference for Elon Musk. “I don’t want anyone to see it, but you will definitely not let an entrepreneur are helping us a lot to see,” Mr. Trump frankly.
Dangerous leaks of confidential information
But Hegseth’s latest mistakes can lead to catastrophic consequences.
On March 24, the Editor -in -chief of The Atlantic Magazine, Jeffrey Goldberg, said he was accidentally included in a coding chat group, in which Hegseth discussed targeted plans on Houthi forces in Yemen just two hours before the US military launched attacks against this group.
The White House confirmed the account of Mr. Goldberg, although later, Defense Minister Hegseth denied that he brought war plans into the chat group, which included other senior members in the White House National Security Group.
When revealing the aircraft, targets and time of attacking the locations of the Houthi rebel force in Yemen on the Signal trade messaging app, Hegseth was accused of advancing the lives of American warriors.
Across the military forces on March 24 and 25, soldiers and officers in the army as well as retirement expressed disappointment and anger on social networks, in closed chat groups as well as at the Pentagon’s corridor.
Retired Major General Paul D. Eaton said: “He has published information that can lead to the death of an American battle pilot.”
It is not clear whether anyone is involved in the Signal chat group with Mr. Hegseth. The Republican Party in the National Assembly carefully did not want to offend Mr. Trump, although the Republican Senator Roger Wicker, and Chairman of the Military Commission, pointed out that there would be some investigations.
Stumbling is learning
Certainly, Hegseth’s falls are part of the learning process when taking over the senior leadership position a government agency with a budget of US $ 850 billion/year.
“Minister Hegseth is trying to find the place where the president will come and run there before him,” said Kori Schake, a national security expert at the US Business Institute, commenting. But she added, “He is still performing performances. He has not yet proven that he is running this ministry.”
Peter Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University, said that the leak of the Signal chat group “raises serious questions about how to apply a new standard of responsibility: how will he handle a situation like this if it is related to one of his subordinates?”
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The moves “lost points”
On March 24, Hegseth set out to Asia, his first trip from his trip to Europe last month, where he was criticized harshly for getting further to Ukraine compared to his boss at that time. Mr. Hegseth posted a video on social networks filming the scene where he was escorted by two female pilots when he boarded the plane at Andrews base. It was a remarkable security performance because even the president was not protected in that way when he was on the air force.
When landing at Hawaii a few hours later, Hegseth criticized Goldberg Editor -in -chief as “what was called journalist” and affirmed that “no one texted the war plan, and that was all I had to say about it.”
In fact, Hegseth’s difficult steps began shortly after he was sworn in the Pentagon leader on January 25.
During his debut in the world in mid -February, he “lost points” when talking to NATO and Ukraine ministers that returning to the border before 2014 of Ukraine was “an unrealistic goal” and excluding Ukrainian NATO member status. A few hours later, Mr. Trump supported him when informing the phone talk with President Vladimir Putin of Russia to start peaceful negotiations.
Faced with opposition the next day from European allies and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, Hegseth denied that Mr. or Mr. Trump “sold” Ukraine. “There is no betrayal there,” US Defense Minister said.
Even the Republicans supported Hegseth also judged him to make mistakes. “He made a mistake of a newcomer in Brussels,” Senator Wicker commented on Hegseth’s comment on the Ukrainian border.
Later, Mr. Hegseth tried to explain, saying that he only tried to “bring realism into the expectations of NATO allies”. He said that Ukraine could cede as many territories to Russia will be decided in the negotiations between Trump and the presidents of the nations of war.
Last week, Mr. Hegseth disagrees with Senator Wicker on reports that the US government is planning to withdraw from NATO’s military command and reduce the number of troops deployed abroad, along with other changes to military combat commanders.
