Just dropped · Trial Balloon · Ep. 189
Navigating the Nonsense
“President Trump’s top cabinet members huddled for hours at Camp David on Friday to discuss next steps in the Iran war and the Saudi-Houthi conflict in Yemen,” Axios reports.
“The highly unusual meeting was not announced by the Trump administration. The last time a similar meeting took place was in June 2025, just days before Israel went to war against Iran.”
“In a new setback to prosecutors in the Sept. 11 case, a military judge on Friday excluded the confessions of another prisoner accused of helping the hijackers who carried out the attacks,” the New York Times reports.
“Last month, the judge also threw out the confessions of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man accused of being the mastermind of the plot that killed nearly 3,000 people.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered commanders to set aside a day this month for troops to register, request absentee ballots and vote, expanding his push for military voter participation,” the Washington Sun reports.
“The directive, signed Thursday and announced Friday, requires a one-day voting ‘stand-down’ by Oct. 15 and establishes the practice for every even-numbered year.”
Said Hegseth: “Now, we’re not telling you who to vote for, but we will give you every opportunity to do so. It’s then up to you to exercise your right as an American to choose your elected leaders.”
“Almost every day in September, Iranian media outlets have published reports of explosions ‘heard from the sea,’ an ominous sign that military activity is taking place in the Strait of Hormuz,” the New York Times reports.
“But the reports left mysterious just who was carrying out the attacks.”
“It turns out it was Iran itself.”
CBS News: Trump vows Iran war to end “very quickly” as more troops head to Mideast.
“The Pentagon is sending a third aircraft-carrier strike group and additional Marine Corps ships to the Middle East, adding 9,000 to 10,000 more troops to the region as President Trump considers renewing strikes on Iran after the midterm elections,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The ships, jet fighters, Marines and sailors will arrive in the region by the end of November.”
“Europe must be ready for a world where Russia is regularly committing sabotage, arson and other hybrid attacks on its soil, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Rutte: “We see Russia testing us across Europe. We must be prepared for Russia’s campaign of hostile actions against allies to continue. We must all remain vigilant, we must all remain alert.”
CNBC: Russia launches massive strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid, forcing power cuts ahead of winter.
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday pulled together hundreds of troops to lay out cuts to the Pentagon’s bureaucracy — and ended up announcing major plans to add to it,” Politico reports.
”At first, the Pentagon chief’s ‘State of the Force’ speech at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, sounded similar to his more publicized talk last year, where he declared new grooming and fitness standards and vowed to get rid of ‘fat generals and admirals.’ He touted an effort Wednesday to monitor testosterone levels and cut 20% of the military’s top officers — particularly those he considered too ‘woke‘ for their jobs.”
”But Hegseth then took an abrupt U-turn, declaring a half-dozen new initiatives that are likely to add to the Pentagon’s budget — among them a combatant command for drones, a commission led by SpaceX founder Elon Musk and former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and a new military base that the Pentagon chief said governors could compete over to house in their states.”
“Some 15 miles off the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, around 20 empty Iranian oil tankers are stranded, drifting with their engines idled as food, fuel and fresh water run short,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“They are the most visible consequence of the new pressure campaign by the U.S. to bring Iran to heel. Dozens of Iranian or Iranian-linked tankers that had participated in the shadowy trade of getting sanctioned oil to China have been stuck in the waters near Asian countries like Sri Lanka and Malaysia since July, when the U.S. reimposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.”
“Senate Democrats are challenging the legality and prudence of the Pentagon’s plan to take a stake in a Venezuelan oil company, laying the groundwork for a potential probe into the arrangement,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Pentagon’s deal for a position in North American Blue Energy Partners—Venezuela’s second-largest oil producer—stands on shaky legal ground and undermines the Latin American country’s pursuit of a democratic transition, four high-ranking Senate Democrats said in a letter sent to President Trump’s top lieutenants.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has survived in office by projecting an image of strength,” the New York Times reports.
“His combative style has won praise from President Trump and support from the Republican base. ‘He loves war,’ Mr. Trump said earlier this year, slapping Mr. Hegseth on the biceps.”
“By many measures, though, Mr. Hegseth has never been weaker. He is leading the military through an unpopular war. Republicans in Congress complain privately — and increasingly in public — that he and his staff are dismissive of their questions and frequently unprepared for briefings.”
“If Democrats win a majority in the House, Mr. Hegseth will likely face new calls for his impeachment.”
“We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that: no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors. Just tough, ready, committed troops. The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in, with testosterone testing on top.”
— Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, quoted by the New York Post.
“Elon Musk is taking on a new role in the Trump administration, this time helping the Pentagon determine which weapons and technology American troops will need to fight the wars of the future,” Fox News reports.
“War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Wednesday that Musk will co-lead Project Meridian, a new Pentagon initiative tasked with looking years and even decades ahead to identify emerging domains of warfare and the capabilities the U.S. military will need to dominate them.”
CNBC: Elon Musk, Palmer Luckey and Newt Gingrich to help Pentagon with warfare initiative, Hegseth says.
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called press coverage of the Iran war ‘a national betrayal,’ and described journalists as anti-American traitors for reporting on the actions of the Pentagon,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Hegseth: “A free press is of course important, but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they are undertaking is fundamentally anti-American. It’s sick. It’s a national betrayal. It’s treason.”
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is creating a four-star combatant command for autonomous warfare, overhauling the way the Pentagon buys, tests and deploys drones and other cutting-edge technologies,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The Autonomous Warfare Command, or ‘AutoWarCom,’ will be directed to buy new drones and robotics ‘in the fastest peacetime shift in modern military history.'”
“U.S. forces are set to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war,” Reuters reports.
“Iraqi security experts say the withdrawal — agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by Donald Trump’s administration even as it wages war against Iran — could give Tehran and its powerful allies free rein, while also allowing other U.S. enemies to stage a comeback, including Islamic State.”
“An Air Force major who was arrested after protesting President Trump has been recommended for a general court-martial, the most severe type of military trial, the major’s lawyer said on Tuesday,” the New York Times reports.
“Efforts this week by Qatari mediators to broker a diplomatic breakthrough between the U.S. and Iran have made little progress, with neither side willing to budge,” Axios reports.
“The stalemate bolsters the belief on both sides that a renewed military conflict is becoming more likely. U.S. officials think President Trump could order a return to major combat operations after the midterms.”
Bloomberg: Iran pessimistic on deal with U.S. before midterms.
“Lithuania is ‘ready to pay the bill’ to permanently host U.S. troops and has raised the issue with Washington as the Baltic nation seeks to lock in American security guarantees, Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said,” Bloomberg reports.
Said Sinkevicius: “We would definitely go for it if they’re ready.”
Taegan Goddard
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.
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