Hegseth Accidentally Blows Up Trump’s Favorite Talking Point on Iran

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth contradicted a major Trump administration talking point regarding the state of Iran’s ruling regime.

A reporter asked Hegseth at a press conference Wednesday whether the U.S. was still encouraging the Iranian people to rise up against their government, and what the two-week ceasefire meant for that. Hegseth’s answer went against the administration’s claim that regime change has already occurred.

“Listen, I would love to see the Iranian people take advantage of this opportunity. They have been oppressed by the previous regime, and they’ll have a new opportunity with this regime. That remains to be seen. That was not our objective in this effort. They’re brave people, horrible things have been done to them,” Hegseth replied.

President Trump and his senior officials have insisted for weeks that the regime ruling Iran has been changed following the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Only Wednesday morning, Trump posted that Iran has “gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change!”

But Hegseth seemed to acknowledge in the press conference that he would like for the Iranian people to still rise up, in effect confirming that the ruling military and religious apparatus that controls Iran hasn’t changed at all. As the new, very shaky two-week ceasefire takes hold and negotiations between Iran and the U.S. begin in Pakistan, it will be interesting to see how the White House deals with Iran’s new rulers. Will it treat with them in good faith or blow up the chances for peace and take hostile action?

Iran called Donald Trump’s bluff. After spending days threatening to completely annihilate Iran, the U.S. president is suddenly open to giving them a lot of money.

In a semi-incoherent post on Truth Social Tuesday evening, Trump called for a two-week ceasefire and suggested that he was amenable to Iran’s 10-point plan, a proposal that the country’s leadership offered the day before. But experts quickly noted that the peace deal was lopsidedly in favor of Iran.

Chief among the concerns was one major concession that would allow Iran to collect millions of dollars in tolls from ships that pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital tradeway in the region for oil and gas.

But never fear: “We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture. It’s a way of securing it—also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump told ABC correspondent Jonathan Karl on Wednesday. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Political commentators did not agree with the president’s analysis of the new trade tariffs.

“Trump went from ‘we’re going to wipe Iran off the map’ to ‘maybe we’re going into business with them’ literally overnight,” wrote Bulwark founder Sarah Longwell.

“Are we gonna do joint ventures for tollbooths at all the major global straits—Malacca, Gibraltar, etc—or are joint ventures possible only if we have a costly war first with the littoral states?” wrote SUNY Albany political science professor Christopher Clary.

“Dude is insane. 25th amendment,” wrote former MS NOW host and Zeteo News chief Mehdi Hasan.

The strait has been closed since March 2. Situated between Iran and the United Arab Emirates, the waterway funnels approximately one-fifth of all crude oil shipments. In 2024, the U.S. imported roughly 500,000 barrels of crude oil per day through the strait, accounting for about 7 percent of total U.S. crude imports, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The ramifications of closing the choke point have been felt around the world. In the U.S., the price per oil barrel has exploded due to the strait’s closure, pushing gas over $4 per gallon in most states (in some areas of California, gas has leapt past $7 a gallon). Diesel shot up by 20 cents over the last week alone.

Trump has waffled on the strait’s significance to American markets. Last week, the president rapidly cycled through his opinions on the transit point, claiming in succession that he didn’t care if the strait remained closed and that he needed it reopened.

Iran has let very few ships pass through the channel, even for a fee, over the last five weeks.

Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth snapped at a reporter Wednesday who raised a simple question regarding the administration’s claims of a ceasefire and the reality on the ground.

“Iran has said that safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz will be possible in coordination with Iran’s armed forces and ‘technical limitations.’ What do you believe that means?” the Daily Wire’s Mary Margaret Olahan asked Hegseth at his Wednesday morning press briefing. “And then we’ve also heard reports that Iran has continued striking targets well into this morning. At what point are we beyond a grace period?”

“What we know is that Iran is gonna say a lot of things,” Hegseth replied. “What has been agreed to, what’s been stated is the strait is open.… As far as shooting, we were monitoring it last night, in real time—of course we are. Iran would be wise to find a way to get [a] carrier pigeon to their troops out in remote locations to know not to shoot, not to shoot any longer.”

“If they’re still firing ballistic missiles—” another reporter interrupted suddenly, referring to reports that Iran continued to attack Israel and Gulf countries Wednesday.

“Excuse me? Why are you so rude?” Hegseth replied, visibly annoyed. “Just wait, I’m callin’ on people … so nasty.”

Hegseth likely knows this, and responded to an honest question about a major sticking point in the ceasefire with a personal attack to avoid answering. But while he, President Trump, and the GOP try to spin this as some mastermind dealmaking victory for them, Iran seems to be continuing to do what it wants, at least for the time being. It’ll control the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian government will remain in place, and it may even continue to fire on Israel and the Gulf allies, as Israel too continues to bomb Lebanon.

At the eleventh hour Tuesday night, Donald Trump announced a two-week ceasefire in his war on Iran, saying that Iran’s proposed 10-point plan was a “workable basis” for negotiations and claiming victory. But already cracks are forming.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is denying that Lebanon is included in the deal, contradicting Iran, mediator Pakistan, and French President Emmanuel Macron. Lebanon was bombed relentlessly by Israel hours after the deal was announced, with strikes hitting the city of Tyre on the southern coast. Multiple airstrikes have hit Beirut, with Israel claiming to have hit 100 Hezbollah targets across the country in a span of 10 minutes.

Israel’s chief of the general staff, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, said in a statement Wednesday, “We will continue to strike the terrorist organisation Hezbollah and seize every opportunity.”

“We will not compromise on the security of the [Israeli] residents of the North. We will continue to attack without pause,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, an oil refinery on Iran’s Lavan Island was bombed, with the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company saying that “safety and firefighting teams are controlling and extinguishing the fire and securing the facility.”

“Fortunately, no casualties have been reported so far due to the timely evacuation of employees,” the company said in a statement to the Mehr news agency.

The United Arab Emirates said that its air defense systems had to handle 17 ballistic missiles and 35 drones from Iran Wednesday, and the Kuwaiti military said 31 Iranian drones targeted its oil, gas, and water desalination facilities.

Meanwhile, Pakistan says Iran will be in attendance for talks in Islamabad Friday. The terms of the ceasefire deal state that the U.S. will pause its bombing campaign and that Iran will reopen the Strait of Hormuz. But will Israel’s insistence that it continue bombing (and occupying) Lebanon derail the whole thing? Will Trump seek to protect the deal and tell his friend and fellow war criminal Netanyahu to back off? He may have to if he wants the ceasefire to hold.

The most bloodthirsty MAGA acolytes are fuming at President Trump’s two-week ceasefire deal with Iran and his capitulation to its 10-point plan—a major win for the Iranian government.

On Tuesday, after he threatened to kill “a whole civilization” and just 90 minutes before his deadline to reach a deal, Trump announced that he’d “suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks.” He credited positive talks with Pakistan and Iran for the agreement, citing Iran’s 10-point plan as a “workable basis on which to negotiate.” This was devastating news for some of the worst people in the MAGA-verse.

“The Islamic terrorist regime of Iran is now more legitimized and emboldened than ever before. Terrorists can’t be negotiated with. They can only be destroyed. The US doesn’t get anything out of this ceasefire that isn’t a ceasefire,” MAGA commentator, Zionist, and proud Islamophobe Laura Loomer wrote on X. “How many missiles did Iran fire into allied countries last night? A lot.”

“A ceasefire that leaves the IRGC in power isn’t peace. It’s permission,” self-described “MAGA Jew” Matthew Feinberg wrote on X. “Permission to regroup. Permission to rearm. Permission to do it all over again. That’s not a win. That’s a delay.”

“This is a cancer. If you don’t fully get rid of a cancer, it will grow back,” conservative Iranian American commentator Dr. Sheila Nazarian told News Nation Tuesday evening. “China will help, Russia will help, and we will leave a nuclear, fully stockpiled, more knowledgeable Iran for our children and grandchildren to deal with.”

The Truth Social comments (at least the few that weren’t bots) weren’t much better for Trump, either.

“I’m extremely disappointed in President Trump tonight. I don’t understand how you can possibly believe anything the IRGC says!!” one user replied to Trump’s announcement. “FUCK THAT!!!! END THIS FUCKING SHIT ALREADY!!! YOU CAN’T NEGOTIATE WITH FUCKING TERRORISTS FOR FUCKS SAKE,” said another.

This ceasefire is only temporary, and comes as the U.S. and Israel have already killed more than 3,000 civilians in Iran and Lebanon. And yet MAGA’s reaction demonstrates the constant whiplash Trump is oscillating between—from the genocidal Laura Loomer route to the “end to endless wars” route he ran on. Right now, both sides are unhappy.

The leader of the Catholic Church has denounced Donald Trump’s warmongering rhetoric.

Pope Leo XIV described the U.S. president’s recent threats to obliterate Iranian civilization as “truly unacceptable.”

“Today as we all know there was this threat against all the people of Iran. This is truly unacceptable,” Leo said Tuesday. “Here there are certainly questions of international law, but even more than this a question of morality for the good of people.”

Trump earlier Tuesday had pledged that Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” unless the country’s leadership agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a vital tradeway in the region that only closed because of Trump’s intervention. He similarly promised to “blow up the whole country.”

Trump has repeatedly escalated his threats against Iran since Sunday, demanding that the country’s leadership either reopen the waterway or face total annihilation, highlighting various possible strike targets such as Iran’s power plants and bridges. The president said this despite the fact that carrying out this threat would constitute a war crime.

Leo referred to the conflict as an “unjust war” and said that the war is “continuing to escalate” with no clear resolution. It “is only provoking more hatred throughout the world,” he said, according to the Associated Press’s English translation of the pope’s comments, which were made in Italian.

But such a severe attack on Iran wouldn’t just be immoral—it would also violate the laws of war. Targeting noncombatants such as civilians and civilian infrastructure is a blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law. Exterminating a “whole civilization” would break several components of the Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. played a foundational role in creating nearly a century ago.

The pope urged people of goodwill to contact their local lawmakers to create pressure against the White House–led war effort. Leo emphasized that attacks on civilian infrastructure are “against international law” as well as a “sign of the hatred, the division, the destruction human beings are capable of.”

“We all want to work for peace,” the pope said.

Trump wrote on social media that Iran had the opportunity to act until Tuesday 8 p.m. Iran has so far rejected potential peace deals.

Annie Ramos, the 22-year-old wife of Army soldier Matthew Blank, was released from ICE custody on Tuesday. Ramos had been detained for five days after being arrested on the Fort Polk, Louisiana, military base where her husband is stationed.

“I am deeply grateful to my husband, Matthew, who never stopped fighting for me, and to our families and community who surrounded us with love, prayers, and support. Because of them, I am home,” Ramos said in a statement. “All I have ever wanted is to live with dignity in the country I have called home since I was a baby. I want to finish my degree, continue my education, and serve my community—just as my husband serves our country with honor.”

Just a few weeks after the couple were married, Ramos was arrested by ICE agents. The two were checking in at Fort Polk to begin the process that would allow them to live together at the base and earn military benefits. Ramos was then handcuffed, led away from Blank and her new parents-in-law, and taken to a building that Blank said “looked like an interrogation room.”

She had no criminal record.

Ramos was born in Honduras and is undocumented. She was issued a deportation order when she was 22 months old. But regardless of such orders, U.S. law allows undocumented immigrants who marry U.S. citizens to become eligible for permanent residency. After getting permanent residency, they can apply for citizenship.

The couple had even hired an immigration lawyer to assist them as they navigated the complicated citizenship process, before running into Donald Trump’s lawless goons.

“I knew she didn’t have status,” Blank said after Ramos was detained. “We were doing everything the right way.”

When they’re not milling around airports doing nothing, some ICE agents have been deployed to military bases around the U.S., mostly targeting relatives of military recruits when they show up on visiting days. Ramos’s case was the first reported instance of a military spouse being detained.

Thankfully, the couple is now reunited. The Trump administration has presumably realized it is a terrible look to be splitting up military families at a time when the U.S. is literally at war. Sadly, thousands of other families continue to be forced apart under Trump’s immigration policies.

As President Donald Trump drags the U.S. deeper into a war with Iran that has caused horrific civilian casualties and decimated the global oil market, it’s worth looking back at how the country got here.

New reporting from The New York Times on Tuesday provided key insight into what convinced Trump to go to war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu personally attended a meeting at the White House on February 11, the Times reported, along with most top members of Trump’s Cabinet. The head of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, David Barnea, attended virtually.

Also present was the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, the slimy businessman who has been a key negotiator in the Middle East since Trump’s reelection, despite not holding an official staff position in the White House.

Conspicuously absent was JD Vance, who was in Azerbaijan for a diplomatic visit. The Times reported that the meeting “had been scheduled on such short notice that he was unable to make it back in time.” But it’s interesting that the most supposedly antiwar figure inside Trump’s Cabinet wasn’t invited to the meeting that convinced the president to kickstart the conflict.

Netanyahu gave an hour-long presentation arguing that Iran’s missile program was weak and could be toppled by U.S. munitions, leading to an easy victory in the region, according to the Times. From there, the prime minister said, a new government could be installed by the U.S. and Israel.

Netanyahu’s speech reportedly worked in convincing the president that war was desirable—and Trump’s underlings, while they would raise a few objections in the coming weeks, fell in line.

“Even the more skeptical members of Mr. Trump’s war cabinet—with the stark exception of Mr. Vance, the figure inside the White House most opposed to a full-scale war—deferred to the president’s instincts, including his abundant confidence that the war would be quick and decisive,” the Times reported.

But since the U.S. entered the conflict on February 28, Iran has been anything but a pushover. The Strait of Hormuz has been shut off, crippling global trade, and America’s most expensive munitions are being wasted with little effect. Bombing around the Middle East is still ongoing, and Trump made his most worrying threat just this morning, writing that “a whole civilization will die” if the Iranian regime does not make a deal. If only any member of Trump’s Cabinet had a spine, maybe this bloody conflict could have been avoided.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s relentless claims of an unqualified success in Iran has only put American defenses in jeopardy.

The weekend rescue of a downed F-15 crew member stands as proof that America does not have “complete control of Iranian skies,” despite what Hegseth pledged last month. Nonetheless, Donald Trump has unquestioningly regurgitated Hegseth’s militaristic optimism to the nation, fueling concerns that the White House is knowingly feeding misinformation to the American people, reported The Washington Post Tuesday.

“Pete is not speaking truth to the president,” one administration official told the newspaper. “As a result, the president is out there repeating misleading information.”

On Monday, Trump acknowledged that the fighter jet had been struck by a heat-seeking missile. It was a “lucky hit,” according to the president’s assessment.

But the F-15 wasn’t the only U.S. aircraft that got hit last week. Iran also shot down an A-10 attack plane on Friday, though the craft was able to fly back to friendly airspace before its pilots evacuated the vehicle.

Kelly Grieco, a military analyst at the Stimson Center, explained to the Post that the loss of the fighter jet is what happens “when you have air superiority but don’t have air supremacy.”

“Our air superiority is limited geographically to the west and to south but also in terms of altitude,” Grieco said.

Last month, Hegseth claimed that Iran’s missile and drone programs were “overwhelmingly destroyed.” Iranian officials have since disagreed: The country’s new leadership told Pakistan Tuesday that not only did Tehran believe that it was winning, but the country still had tens of thousands more drones and missiles at its disposal.

That could boil down to a money and munitions problem for the U.S., which has so far struggled to combat Iran’s Shahed attack drones (which are very cheap and easy to produce) with anything other than the most expensive interceptor systems, such as Patriot interceptor missiles. (The military has so far requested to purchase 3,200 Patriot missiles for the 2027 fiscal year, costing just under $14 billion. The Navy requested hundreds more on Monday.)

Nonetheless, the Trump administration has lashed out at any attempt to hold Hegseth accountable for his unfounded comments on the war. In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell referred to criticism of Hegseth’s messaging as little more than “lies and propaganda.”

“Secretary Hegseth has provided the Commander-in-Chief with decisive military options to achieve our clear, scoped objectives: destroy Iran’s missile arsenal, annihilate their Navy, destroy their terrorist proxies, and ensure Iran can never obtain a nuclear weapon,” Parnell told the Post. “The Washington Post is pushing a fake story of failure.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly also insisted that Trump “always had the full picture of the conflict.”

“Nothing has surprised him or our military planners, who were prepared for any possible contingency,” she said.

But the conflict is far from a success. The administration widely advertised that it planned for the war to last four to six weeks at maximum, but recent escalations have sparked concerns that the situation will devolve into yet another endless conflict in the Middle East. The war is currently in its sixth week.

Trump suddenly expressed a renewed interest in ending the war over the weekend, after fears emerged that the oil and gas crisis sparked by the fighting could hurt Republicans at the ballot box come November.

The president has demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz—a vital tradeway for the region’s oil and gas—by Tuesday at 8 p.m., or face total annihilation. In a Truth Social post, Trump promised to commit war crimes, pledging that a “whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” should Iran fail to reopen the waterway for trade. The country has so far rejected potential peace deals.

Donald Trump is asking for millions of taxpayer dollars for his proposed 250-foot-tall arch in Washington, D.C.

The White House is seeking $15 million from the National Endowment for the Arts to build the massive archway across from the Lincoln Memorial, NOTUS reports, citing a spending plan shared in the Office of Management and Budget database Tuesday. The plan contradicts Trump’s earlier promises that the arch, which is intended to commemorate the U.S.’s 250th anniversary, was going to be completely privately funded with leftover donations from his ballroom project.

At the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House Monday, Trump was carrying a picture of the proposed arch with him, and on Sunday, his motorcade drove slowly around the location where he wants the arch, Memorial Circle in Washington. Meanwhile, he skipped the Easter services he was slated to attend.

Even as a war he started rages on and the economy struggles as a result, Trump seems preoccupied with building monuments to himself. The construction of his beloved ballroom will dwarf the existing executive estate, has resulted in the razing of the White House’s East Wing, and will cost at least $400 million. And while he claims that it will be completely funded by donations, it, like the arch, could end up requiring government funds.

A federal judge ruled last month that construction on Trump’s ballroom “has to stop,” as the president acted beyond his authority to raze the East Wing. A group of veterans has also filed a lawsuit against construction of the arch, arguing that it not only requires congressional approval and an environmental review but would increase traffic and obstruct views of Arlington National Cemetery. But if Trump gets his way, by the time 2028 is here, he will have left permanent tributes to himself across Washington.