Topline

President Donald Trump defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday in the wake of a report the two clashed over an alleged weapons shortage due to the Iran war, calling the claim “treasonous” and insisting he is “extremely happy” with Hegseth, who has faced criticism for months that he’s allegedly misled both Trump and the public.

Key Facts

Trump said “everything has been extraordinary” under Hegseth and insisted the Iran war “is going very well,” writing on Truth Social that Hegseth is “highly respected within the Military.”

Trump was responding to a report in The Washington Post earlier Thursday that said he accused Hegseth during a meeting last week at Camp David of leaving him uninformed about the alleged weapons shortage.

Hegseth has been facing allegations for months of misleading the president about the Iran war before it even began and making overly optimistic assessments of its progress, telling both Trump and the public Iran’s weapons stockpiles have been depleted, only for Iran to continue its attacks on U.S. troops, killing four service members in July.

Hegseth has said repeatedly the U.S. has destroyed Iran’s missile and drone programs, but a U.S. intelligence assessment in April found more than half of the country’s missile launchers are still intact, CNN reported, citing three unnamed sources familiar with the report.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., during a recent budget hearing told Hegseth his claims about the Iran war “don’t add up,” noting he said last year, after the U.S. launched targeted strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, that its nuclear facilities had been “obliterated,” only for Trump to justify attacks against Iran in February by claiming Tehran was weeks away from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The Pentagon has also been accused of obscuring the real number of service members injured in the war—a group of Democratic senators on Thursday announced legislation “to ban the Secretary of Defense from hiding the true cost of war” after the department recategorized some injuries and deaths in the Iran war on its public-facing database under “overseas operations,” making it impossible to parse out the Iran war casualties.

Tangent

Trump also denied a weapons shortage in a Truth Social post earlier Thursday, claiming the U.S. “has massive amounts of munitions” with more being constructed. “The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!” he wrote.

Chief Critics

A group of prominent anti-Trump Republicans are mulling the formation of a third party, with their opposition to the Iran war as the movement’s foundation. “We said no more foreign wars and we meant it and supported Donald Trump because he made that promise,” former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., tweeted over the weekend, with a photo of her, Tucker Carlson, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and others sitting around a table, writing “the movement has begun.” Carlson on Wednesday attacked Hegseth in laying out a 10-point plan for the new political movement on his show: "When you see your secretary of war jumping around like a deranged, bloodthirsty monkey calling for the murder of innocents and no one says anything about it, then you know we’ve taken a path that nobody can be proud of," Carlson said. Both Greene and Carlson said in June they would no longer support the Republican Party.

Key Background

Trump is growing exacerbated with the Iran war, according to multiple reports, as polls show Americans are increasingly against the conflict and negotiations with Iran have repeatedly stalled. Multiple outlets reported this week the U.S. has nearly depleted its supply of long-range missiles, deterring Trump from restarting attacks on Iran since it would require riskier, piloted bombers without the missiles that can be launched from a safe distance. Trump has made repeated contradictory statements throughout the duration of the conflict, including signing a memorandum of understanding with Iran in June to end the war, only to restart attacks a short time later. Most recently, he backed off threats to attack Iran’s energy facilities over the weekend, claiming a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz would likely be announced Wednesday or Thursday.

further reading

Iran War Has Reportedly Depleted Crucial Weapons Stockpiles—Which Trump Denies (Forbes)