{"id":324231,"date":"2025-10-22T16:14:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324231\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T16:14:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T16:14:11","slug":"trump-administration-live-updates-hegseth-changes-how-pentagon-officials-communicate-with-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/324231\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration live updates: Hegseth changes how Pentagon officials communicate with Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leaders at <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/defense-department-pentagon-hegseth-congress-c15a2050aa95998f28e31a6b5c1d287a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Pentagon have significantly altered<\/a> how military officials will speak with Congress after a pair of new memos issued last week.<\/p>\n<p>In an Oct. 15 memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his deputy, Steve Feinberg, ordered Pentagon officials \u2014 including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff \u2014 to obtain permission from the department\u2019s main legislative affairs office before they have any communication with Capitol Hill.<\/p>\n<p>The memo was issued the same day the vast majority of <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pentagon-press-access-hegseth-trump-restrictions-5d9c2a63e4e03b91fc1546bb09ffbf12\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pentagon reporters exited the building<\/a> rather than agree to the Defense Department\u2019s new restrictions on their work, and it appears to be part of a broader effort by Hegseth to exert tighter control over what the department communicates to the outside world.<\/p>\n<p>According to the memo, a copy of which was authenticated by a Pentagon official, \u201cunauthorized engagements with Congress by (Pentagon) personnel acting in their official capacity, no matter how well-intentioned, may undermine Department-wide priorities critical to achieving our legislative objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Other news we\u2019re following:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul class=\"rte2-style-ul\" id=\"rte-39df7dc2-a8f4-11f0-b235-cff3d650f162\">\n<li><b>Trump-Putin summit on hold: <\/b>The meeting between Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin aimed at <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/live\/donald-trump-news-updates-10-21-2025#0000019a-0799-d62d-adff-3fbfbd380000\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">resolving the war in Ukraine<\/a> was announced last week but is now uncertain following a call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to a U.S. official.<\/li>\n<li><b>Administration pushes Gaza ceasefire agreement:<\/b> Vice President JD Vance <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/gaza-ceasefire-vance-netanyahu-449c667c76cf166b233c20d3ed1dd044\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">joined top U.S. officials and envoys in Israel<\/a> as the administration tries to bolster <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/israel-hamas-war\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Gaza ceasefire agreement<\/a>. Vance sought to publicly ease concerns within Israel that the Trump administration was dictating terms to its closest ally in the region. Uncertainty remains over the deployment of an international security force in Gaza and who will govern the territory. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet with Netanyahu in Israel on Friday.<\/li>\n<li><b>Construction begins on White House ballroom: <\/b>Crews on Monday started <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-ballroom-white-house-east-wing-demolish-a3efb2973d4d4e45f98b02e55210c538\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">tearing down part of the White House\u2019s East Wing<\/a> to build a new ballroom that Trump has championed, despite lacking approval for construction from the federal agency that oversees such projects. Trump says <a class=\"Link AnClick-LinkEnhancement\" data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/trump-ballroom-white-house-east-wing-demolish-854a0b440be58924f83d57810ed3e9af\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the $250 million project<\/a> will be paid for exclusively with private donations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leaders at the Pentagon have significantly altered how military officials will speak with Congress after a pair of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":324232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[327,69,2055,49089,50,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-324231","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-government-and-politics","11":"tag-government-shutdown","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115418710932838845","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}