“As President Donald Trump’s war with Iran drags on, a growing number of House Republicans are sounding the alarm about top-level turnover at the Pentagon — with some of the GOP’s most prominent national security voices openly criticizing the recent departures,” MS NOW reports.
Mediaite: Trump reportedly “expressed concern” over Hegseth’s Army purge in private meeting.
“On August 8, former Representative Eric Swalwell boarded a United Airlines flight from Frankfurt, Germany, to Washington, D.C. He didn’t know it, but federal agents were watching him throughout the nine-hour trip,” The Atlantic reports.
“The FBI had asked the Federal Air Marshal Service to covertly monitor Swalwell on board and to watch him use his electronic devices, to see whether its officers could visually ascertain his passcodes… Air marshals are trained to blend in with other passengers and quietly keep tabs on their subjects, who are usually suspected terrorists or potential hijackers, not politicians.”
“Iran retaliated against new U.S. strikes overnight, launching missiles and drones toward U.S. positions in the region in defiance of President Donald Trump’s warning Tuesday that such actions would see Iran ‘hit again at a much harder and higher level,’” the Washington Post reports.
”The overnight attacks came after U.S. forces launched a new round of strikes inside Iran, military officials said Tuesday, an expansion of attacks that recently resumed after weeks of a tenuous ceasefire.”
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“The Pentagon has entered a period of profound institutional turmoil, as a crisis of leadership at home converges with a crisis of capacity abroad,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: Six months into the Iran war, Pete Hegseth presides over a Pentagon with fewer senior leaders, fewer critical weapons and less public accountability than at any point in President Trump’s two terms.”
CNN: Army leadership void fuels fears about Hegseth’s culture war fixation.
The Economist: “A year and a half ago, few would have wagered that Pete Hegseth would consolidate power at the Pentagon. Narrowly confirmed by the Senate amid allegations of financial mismanagement in prior jobs and heavy drinking, which Mr Hegseth denied, the former Fox News weekend host and voluble culture warrior appeared badly underqualified and no match for the generals and admirals he would direct.”
“In office, the secretary of war has skirted scandal, be it mishandling classified information or forcing polygraph tests on his underlings. But far from seeing his power wane, Mr Hegseth has firmly taken control of his department and the military’s leadership. A rolling purge of America’s armed forces has cleared out his rivals and those deemed insufficiently loyal.”
“Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation follows a strained relationship with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and repeated warnings to the White House, including Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, about what has been described as Hegseth’s widespread and seemingly indiscriminate firing of senior military officers,” ABC News reports.
“Driscoll also warned the White House about unprecedented efforts by Hegseth to block others from advancing into the military’s highest ranks after they had been thoroughly vetted.”
“President Trump said he’s nominating Navy veteran Hung Cao to become the service’s top civilian leader, a job that has been vacant since spring when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed John Phelan out of the job,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in recent weeks removed the names of at least six Army officers from a list to receive promotions to two-star generals,” NBC News reports.
“The list had consisted of 18 one-star generals who were selected for promotions by a board of their peers.”
“If the failed Nation of Iran retaliates for this very justified attack, they will be hit again at a much harder and higher level, but it will not be the biggest attack of them all, that is waiting in the wings and, when it is over, there will be very little left of the Islamic Republic of Iran!'”
— President Trump, quoted by Mediaite.
Tom Nichols: “Making Pete Hegseth the secretary of defense was always a huge gamble. A television host with little background in national-security or defense affairs, who topped out as a major in the National Guard, he was nominated based on the same qualification shared by most of Donald Trump’s other appointees: loyalty.”
“And now the price of that gamble is evident. The Pentagon is careening offtrack under a secretary of defense who is firing or forcing the resignations of officers and civilian officials, not because they are unqualified but because he believes they are insufficiently loyal to him, personally.”
“During a White House meeting last week, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll brought his concerns about the future of the Army under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directly to President Trump—a sign of how far tensions between the two Pentagon leaders had escalated, and of the dysfunction inside the building, four people familiar with the conversation told us,” The Atlantic reports.
“Trump was surprised when Driscoll told him how many generals and other top officers had been fired, pushed out, or passed over for promotion under Hegseth, one of the people said. Driscoll argued that the Army could not transform itself the way it needs to, because of the departure of so many leaders, this person said, adding that Trump expressed concern about the deep cuts to the Army’s senior leadership.”
“Two key reasons led to Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation, announced Monday: the feeling that his modernization initiatives were being blocked, and the chaos created by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s firing of senior generals,” Axios reports.
“Driscoll’s wartime resignation, on top of Hegseth’s firing of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George this spring, leaves the military’s largest service without Senate-confirmed leadership, civilian or uniformed.”
“Ukraine’s growing ability to strike deep inside Russia is thanks to long-range drones such as the Mammoth, which can fly 1,500 miles,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“By next year, their range will double to 3,000 miles.”
“Ukrainian defense-technology companies are rapidly improving the range, speed and payload of long-distance drones, bringing more of Russia within reach and allowing Ukraine to hit back at its invaders.”
“The U.S. and Iran have resumed military strikes — trapping America’s partners in the Middle East in volatility that could hurt their economies for years to come,” NOTUS reports.
“U.S. Central Command on Sunday launched the first American strikes on Iranian forces in more than a month, saying the targets posed ‘an imminent threat’ to civilian shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Tehran launched retaliatory missiles at American forces in Jordan hours later. The renewed violence came after the Trump administration had argued it was weakening Iran’s grip on the strait and bolstering energy shipments through the crucial waterway by deploying U.S. naval forces. The administration has also applied unprecedented sanction pressure on the country, which led analysts to predict Iran would retaliate. Now, experts believe that the potential for tit-for-tat strikes will continue even if all-out conflict is avoided.”
“President Trump’s historic Venezuelan oil deal revolves around a colorful and controversial man from Caracas with a long history of supporting U.S. interests — including the operation to remove former strongman Nicolas Maduro,” Axios reports.
“Why it matters: Alejandro Betancourt, 46, runs the oil company that’s entering into an unprecedented partnership with the Pentagon. It gives America access to some of Venezuela’s vast oil fields at a time when U.S. reserves are low.”
“As the U.S. government faced shortcomings in the country’s weapons manufacturing, the Pentagon set up a new office that would make investments to help boost defense industrial production,” the New York Times reports.
“That effort, which began in 2022 during the Biden administration, is now taking a sharp turn with the Pentagon’s involvement in an oil production deal between the United States and Venezuela that President Trump announced on Friday.”
Financial Times: Alejandro Betancourt: the man who would be Trump’s “viceroy” in Venezuela.
“President Trump and his senior aides have been considering waging limited strikes in the Strait of Hormuz to prevent Iran from reconstituting its radar and missile capabilities to attack ships,” Axios reports.
“Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has submitted his resignation to President Trump following months of tension with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the direction of the service and the ouster of numerous senior Army officers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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