Overview
- At a televised Cabinet meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the U.S. campaign against Iran as swift and decisive and told reporters to “get it right.”
- Hegseth claimed more than 10,000 enemy targets were hit and said over 150 naval vessels and underground sites were destroyed, adding that Iran’s naval commander was killed.
- The Cabinet room update followed a viral Oval Office clip Tuesday in which Hegseth said “We negotiate with bombs” and made a repeated “throttle” gesture that drew an eyebrow raise from President Trump.
- Morning Joe hosts mocked the gesture and rhetoric as childish and performative, and The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg’s attempt to defend Hegseth on-air was met with laughter.
- Coverage split along familiar lines as Fox News emphasized Hegseth’s tally of battlefield gains and his critique of “anti-Trump media,” while Mediaite, TheWrap, and BuzzFeed highlighted the viral gesture and the public ridicule it drew.