Trump Has No Idea What Hegseth Is Doing

Trump looks on as Hegseth speaks during a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Photo: Andrew Cabellero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is taking the fall for a pause on weapons deliveries to Ukraine that left President Donald Trump looking particularly clueless earlier this month.

Hegseth is said to have authorized the move to halt deliveries of crucial air-defense components without notifying the president or the White House of the decision, blindsiding Ukrainian leaders after Trump had just floated sending more military aid to Kyiv to fend off almost daily Russian air attacks. At the time, the White House said the decision was made “to put America’s interests first.”

But in a series of public comments that seemed to only cause further confusion about who exactly is in charge of the administration’s foreign policy, Trump pleaded ignorance about the halted delivery, telling Volodymyr Zelenskyy last Friday that he, as commander-in-chief, was not responsible. Asked by a reporter during a televised Cabinet meeting on Tuesday who had ordered the pause, Trump shot back, “I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me?” (If that admission set off any alarms, they certainly didn’t get any quieter when, in response to a separate question about Russia allegedly using chemical weapons in Ukraine, Trump had to turn to Hegseth to ask if he knew the answer.)

The White House declined to confirm that Hegseth made the call to stop the shipment to Ukraine, perhaps aware that having a rogue Defense secretary is just as alarming as having a president who’s oblivious to major foreign-policy decisions.

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, quickly gained a reputation as the administration’s biggest bungler soon after taking over the helm at the Department of Defense, embarrassing the White House by sharing sensitive military plans about U.S. strikes in Yemen in a group chat on Signal, blaming “leakers” from his own staff for the debacle, and then, by all accounts, sowing internal conflict as he ousted senior aides and began to enlist the help of his wife with his work. One of the most inexperienced members of the Cabinet, Hegseth has also appeared to unravel when his leadership is questioned, launching into a personal tirade last month at a former colleague who expressed doubts about the “resounding success” he claimed U.S. military strikes had on Iran’s nuclear program.

The instability Hegseth is accused of bringing to the Pentagon is also said to be a factor in his failure to inform the White House that he’d stopped Ukraine’s arms shipment: He has no chief of staff, is having a hard time finding one, and lacks senior advisers who might have been able to prevent the fiasco.

The Pentagon announced late Monday that it would resume shipments to Ukraine at Trump’s request. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday stressed that Trump “has made the decision to continue providing defensive weapons to Ukraine to help stop the killing in this brutal war, which the Pentagon has said they are actively working on.”

And he still “has full confidence in the secretary of Defense,” she added.

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