President Donald Trump has quietly begun to pin his hopes for resolving the Iran conflict on his treasury secretary rather than on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who is increasingly sidelined.
Sources quoted Saturday by The Daily Mail described a subtle shift within the 80-year-old president’s inner circle in Situation Room briefings on the war, now in its seventh month.
While Hegseth is still routinely asked for updates on the war, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Dan Caine, Vice President JD Vance, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, an unnamed insider claimed Trump now gives Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s take more attention in the meetings.
Donald Trump at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. / Kylie Cooper / REUTERS
“The environment changed,” the source was quoted as saying, attributing the shift to a realization within the administration that they “can’t bludgeon them anymore” to win concessions.
“One is a sledgehammer, and the other is a scalpel,” the source said of Hegseth and Bessent.
The shift reportedly came after Trump angrily confronted Hegseth about dwindling stockpiles of munitions at a Camp David meeting in late July, telling the defense secretary he believed the issue “had been fixed” when it apparently had not.
Hegseth, according to the source quoted by the Mail, “tells Trump what he wants to hear,” leading to concerns that Trump is not getting an accurate picture of the situation on the ground in the Middle East.
It’s a far cry from February, when Trump and Hegseth worked in lockstep to start the Iran war, repeatedly lauding themselves as victors without any real victory.
Since then the situation has devolved into a seemingly intractable quagmire, with the Iranian regime still steadfastly resisting Trump’s demands around their nuclear program and the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. appears to have paused strikes on Iran, with none having been publicly announced since July 29. Instead, the administration is attempting economic sanctions to bring Iran to heel.
Bessent has a seat on the National Security Council and is using the Treasury’s sanctions powers to choke the regime’s oil revenues and disrupt billions in profits.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment but told the Mail that the secretaries had equal footing with Trump.
“Secretary Bessent has been involved throughout this entire conflict, and Secretary Hegseth will continue to be heavily involved,” the White House official said.