On January 24, 2017, just four days after Donald Trump was inaugurated for his first term in office, the FBI sent two agents to the White House to interrogate Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn. It wasn’t billed as an interrogation at the time; they convinced Flynn that it was just an opportunity for a friendly chat. But in retrospect, their goal could not have been any more clear: They wanted to manufacture a pretext to secure Flynn’s termination. Getting rid of Flynn would enable the FBI to continue to conduct a series of fraudulent investigations into the Trump administration. It would insulate the bureau from any kind of large-scale reform. And it would help the FBI spread the narrative that the Trump administration was secretly working for Russia in some way.
Therefore, the FBI asked Flynn a few questions in the White House. Then they convinced Mike Pence that Flynn had lied to them — even though to this day, no one can explain what exactly Flynn said, because the conversation wasn’t recorded. In any event, Pence took the FBI’s word for it. Michael Flynn was fired after less than a month. His tenure as national security advisor was the shortest in American history.
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What happened to Michael Flynn is worth recalling this week because it was not a one-off. This wasn’t a random act of sabotage by some unelected, shadowy officials. It was, in fact, standard operating procedure. It is the default response of a bureaucracy that feels threatened. They will come up with a smear campaign, launder it through sympathetic media outlets, and ultimately pressure the decision-makers to get rid of their target. Eight years ago, this is precisely how they got rid of Michael Flynn. And right now, it’s how they’re trying to destroy Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
From the moment Hegseth was nominated, there was a concerted effort to smear him as an alcoholic who was too inexperienced to do the job. It was almost like the Brett Kavanaugh hearings all over again. Anonymous accusations began surfacing every other day. We were even told, if you can believe it, that Pete Hegseth once celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, live on the air on “Fox & Friends.” That was supposed to be profoundly scandalous. In reality, the point of that fake scandal was never to convince anyone of anything. Instead, the point was to send a message to the incoming Trump administration. The message was that the most powerful forces in Washington did not want Pete Hegseth to be confirmed. They wanted Donald Trump to pull his nomination and select someone more conventional — someone who would be more responsive to the needs of defense contractors, for example.
But Trump didn’t abandon Hegseth’s nomination. He decided, after what happened in his first term, to trust his own instincts and stand by his selection. The result has been predictable. Just a few months into Donald Trump’s term, Hegseth’s enemies have begun yet another smear campaign. And like the campaign to oust Michael Flynn, it’s not meant to withstand any kind of scrutiny. The point is to move quickly, create panic, and ultimately pressure the White House to fire Hegseth.
It’s not exactly a subtle operation. Yesterday morning, NPR came out with this story, which directly states the outcome they want to achieve:
Exclusive: The White House is looking to replace Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.
According to NPR:
The White House has begun the process of looking for a new leader at the Pentagon to replace Pete Hegseth, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak publicly. This comes as Hegseth is again mired in controversy over sharing military operational details in a group chat.
So here we have an unnamed source — just one person, who’s described only as a “U.S. official” — stating that the White House is planning to fire Pete Hegseth. And based on this one nameless official, who supposedly serves somewhere in the United States government, the narrative has been set. Pretty much every outlet picked up this story: They’re all trying to convey the perception that Hegseth’s removal is a foregone conclusion.
Meanwhile, there’s a steady drip of new information that’s supposedly even more damning than the last hit piece. Tune into CNN, and they’ll tell you that Hegseth needs to be removed because of a new Signal chat that’s suddenly been uncovered. Watch:
Before we go into the specifics, I need to make it clear that I was a fan of the Hegseth pick when it was initially announced. But after seeing this unrelenting smear campaign that started before he was confirmed and hasn’t let up since, I am now an even bigger fan of the pick. It’s clear that the establishment sees this guy as a threat to their agenda. He’s in a position to do extraordinary damage to their interests. And it seems like he’s already doing a lot of damage — which is why he needs to stay in his position at all costs.
And as you saw, Donald Trump doesn’t need to be told that. He understands exactly what CNN and the rest of the corporate press are doing. The coverage is breathless and fast-moving because you’re not supposed to scrutinize it. If you think about it for five seconds, you’ll realize that — as was the case with Michael Flynn — the hysteria makes absolutely no sense.
To recap: The case against Pete Hegseth is that the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, mistakenly added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, to a classified group chat about a U.S. military strike. Even if this is true — even if we pretend for a moment that a rabidly anti-Trump journalist, with extensive ties to the deep state was somehow “accidentally” added to a highly sensitive group chat — it’s still not remotely clear why Pete Hegseth should be fired as a result. He’s not the one who made the mistake.
The next alleged scandal, as reported by The New York Times, concerns a Signal chat that involved Hegseth and a dozen other people, including his lawyer, his wife Jennifer and his brother Phil, who works at the Pentagon. The chat, which was called “Defense Team Huddle,” also reportedly included Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, two former Hegseth advisers who were just fired after a leak investigation. Supposedly, during this chat, Hegseth again discussed war plans involving Yemen, although no one’s sure exactly what was communicated.
Now, under the circumstances, it would be reasonable to wonder if Dan Caldwell or Darin Selnick might have had a role in placing this story in the New York Times. After all, they were just fired from the Pentagon for leaking. They were both members of this group chat. And now they’re publicly attacking Pete Hegseth’s Defense Department, and implying that the Pentagon wants to pursue a reckless war with Iran.
As it relates to unelected operatives in the Pentagon, that may be true. I’m not in a position to dispute that claim. But anyone who’s paying attention to what Pete Hegseth is doing, both in public and in private, knows that he’s going to do everything he can to prevent that outcome.
Here’s what Hegseth told Fox News earlier this month:
[Trump] is dead serious that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. … He’s said that for 20 years, he’s been consistent, that is clear. He’s dead serious that he wants it done at the negotiating table, he wants it done peacefully, and that’s why he’s going straight to these talks, he’s set that deadline. … But he’s also dead serious that if we can’t figure this out at the negotiating table then there are other options, to include my department to ensure that Iran never has a nuclear bomb.
In other words, his primary objective is not to attack Iran. It’s a peaceful, diplomatic resolution.
A couple of days later, The New York Times confirmed that, in private, Hegseth had personally helped avert a military strike on Iran that could’ve spiraled into World War III:
Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions. … Inside the Trump administration, some officials were becoming skeptical of the Israeli plan. In a meeting this month — one of several discussions about the Israeli plan — Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, presented a new intelligence assessment that said the buildup of American weaponry could potentially spark a wider conflict with Iran that the United States did not want. A range of officials echoed Ms. Gabbard’s concerns in the various meetings. Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; and Vice President JD Vance all voiced doubts about the attack
That report was published on April 16. It states, very clearly, that Hegseth had helped stop a military attack on Iran, which could’ve easily devolved into all-out warfare.
Four days later, on April 20, the Times published a story outlining Hegseth’s second Signal chat, which is supposedly grounds for his termination. In other words, we get a new scandal, right after Hegseth enrages the defense contractors that would’ve made many millions of dollars, if not more, from an all-out conflict with Iran. And then, hot on the heels of the new scandal, we get an unverified, barely-sourced report about how the White House is looking to replace Hegseth.
At this point, I can only assume that’s another fake smear. It would be a disastrous mistake for Trump to cave to the pressure and offer up his Defense Secretary as a sacrifice. It’s the kind of mistake that could derail his entire presidency. And it would be a major victory for establishment Washington, which is becoming increasingly desperate by the day.
You can see the signs everywhere. Here’s one of them: On Monday, four more Democrat lawmakers made a pilgrimage to El Salvador to visit that MS-13 gangbanger, following the visit by Senator Chris Van Hollen that we discussed last week. The lawmakers were Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, and Maxine Dexter of Oregon. These politicians, like the rest of the Washington establishment, are pulling out all the stops to defend their open borders, globalist agenda. Making a martyr out of Abrego Garcia, and a scapegoat out of Hegseth, is all part of that plan.
To be clear, I see no indication that this is going to work. It doesn’t look like this MS-13 gangbanger is going to be returned to the United States, any more than it looks like Pete Hegseth is about to be replaced by another Raytheon board member. The idea that the White House is planning to cave to the demands of establishment Washington, at the moment, seems like yet another fabrication from the corporate press. For the sake of the world, which wouldn’t exactly benefit from nuclear armageddon, it should remain a fabrication and nothing more.
