Overview
- Zeteo reports a spike in on-the-record leaking and staff backbiting inside the Trump administration as officials seek distance from the Iran operation.
- Current and former officials have begun calling Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “Dumb McNamara,” and some now refer to the conflict as “Hegseth’s war,” according to Zeteo and Raw Story.
- President Trump publicly credited Hegseth with urging action, saying, “You were the first one to speak up,” which placed early advocacy for the strikes on his defense chief.
- Hegseth has advanced a force-first message in public, declaring “We negotiate with bombs” and praying for “overwhelming violence” at a Pentagon worship service, The Independent reported.
- The fighting is in its fourth week, and Raw Story reports 13 U.S. service members killed and 232 wounded, a toll that is feeding the internal rush to assign responsibility.