Chaos in the Pentagon over Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s indecision and flip-flopping prompted a “rare intervention” from President Donald Trump’s favorite general.
The latest debacle in Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary was his decision to torpedo the promotion of Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims after previously signing off on it, insiders told The New York Times.
Sims is a 34-year Army veteran who led troops during five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and has been awarded numerous medals, including a Distinguished Service Medal.
“He’s the type of person you would want your kids serving under—extremely dedicated, selfless, and loyal,” Brynt Parmeter, who was until June the Pentagon’s chief talent management officer, told the Times.
His promotion to a four-star general seemed all but certain, insiders said, until this spring, when Hegseth alleged without evidence that Sims had leaked information to news outlets.
Sims was cleared of the allegation, and Hegseth for a time agreed to promote him. But Hegseth eventually reneged, this time arguing that Sims was too close to Gen. Mark Milley.
Milley is a former Trump Joint Chiefs chairman whom the president now loathes—Trump has suggested that Milley deserves execution, while Milley has called Trump a “total fascist.”
Hegseth’s refusal to promote Sims prompted what the Times called a “rare intervention” from Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan “Razin” Caine, of whom Trump is a big fan. Caine challenged the defense secretary’s decision, urging him to reconsider, the insiders said.
While Hegseth agreed to meet with Sims one more time, it didn’t matter. Hegseth stood firm, and now Sims is expected to retire in the coming months. Nineteen out of the last 21 generals of Sims’ rank were promoted, according to the Times.
Asked for comment on the situation, the Pentagon sent the Daily Beast a statement from chief spokesman Sean Parnell thanking Sims for “his decades of service in the United States Army.”
Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary has been marked by chaos within the Pentagon.
Over the past several months, reports have emerged about infighting among Hegseth’s top aides, his paranoia about leaks, and a struggle to hire and retain staff.
Nevertheless, Trump has continued to stand behind Hegseth, as a White House spokeswoman told the Times that the defense secretary still has the president’s “full confidence.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/pete-hegseth-chaos-at-pentagon-triggered-rare-intervention
Franklin Roosevelt mastered the use of radio. John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were top of the game on TV. And Donald Trump is the first AI slop president.
Since January, Trump’s administration has used artificial intelligence to churn out a steady stream of fake images on social media, from alligators in ICE hats to crying members of Congress,while the official White House account on X has used it to portray the president as Superman, the pope and a villain from “Star Wars.”
Earlier this week, Trump used his account on his personal social media platform, Truth Social, to share an AI-generated clip showing former President Barack Obama being forcibly detained by the FBI. As bizarre as it was, it fit in with his other nonsensical memes, which included various Democrats in orange prison jumpsuits as the “Shady Bunch” and a fake-looking video of a woman in a bikini catching a snake with her bare hands.
There’s a term for someone using social media this way that can’t be repeated in polite company, so let’s just call it slop-posting. It’s usually done by a 14-year-old boy, or someone who still acts like one, and it’s mostly just absurd or mildly offensive. It’s not harmless, necessarily, but it’s mostly just lame trolling.
But when the president does it, it’s something else entirely. Even in the most harmless AI-generated memes, Trump is muddying the waters on what is real, encouraging his supporters to believe everything and nothing. Did a woman in a bikini really catch a snake? Is Obama really going to be arrested? To a Trump supporter steeped in these memes, the answer may not even matter.
…
https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-obama-arrest-ai-slop-video-truth-social-rcna221041
NPR reports the Trump administration is now canceling a program designed to help veterans behind on home loans get new, low-interest mortgages. And veterans are furious.
“My social media posts have not been nice to the director of the VA and have not been nice to Trump. And I voted for the guy!” said Jon Henry, who served in Iraq during the first Gulf War.
Last month, the Veterans Administration abruptly killed its VA Servicing Purchase (VASP) safety net program, which has helped more than 33,000 veterans and service members, according to the VA. But this most recent service cancellation is only the latest in a VA mortgage roller-coaster leaving service members confused about what help the federal government actually provides, if any.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth clashed with Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) during a Wednesday hearing over the 2026 budget requests. Ultimately, it devolved into Hegseth laughing at the senator before she elevated her voice.
Slotkin recalled during Hegseth’s confirmation hearing that she asked whether he would agree to deploy American soldiers to fire on protesters. At the time, Hegseth called it “hypothetical,” despite former Secretary Mark Esper being asked to do the same thing. Hegseth has since deployed the National Guard and Marines to oppose protesters.
“Does the uniformed military have the ability to arrest and detain protesters?” asked Slotkin.
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Hegseth fumbled.
“It’s a yes or no thing,” she said.
“It’s bemusing the extent to which the speculation is out there. These troops are given very clear orders,” Hegseth claimed.
“Then what is the order? Then list it out for us. Be a man. List it out!” she asked. “Did you authorize them to detain or arrest. That is a fundamental of democracy. I’m not trying to be a snot here. I’m just trying to get the actual — did you authorize them to do that?”
“All of these orders and what they are sent to do are public,” said Hegseth.
“Ok, so say it, say it. Yes or no,” she said.
“I’d like to,” he said.
“Please. Yes or no,” she repeated.
“I’ve said time and time again, through interruption, they are there to protect law enforcement,” Hegseth continued, still refusing to answer her question.
“Do they have the ability to arrest —” Slotkin began with Hegseth talking over her.
“To do their job deporting illegals allowed in by the previous administration,” Hegseth continued.
“So, they cannot arrest and detain citizens of the United States? The uniformed military, is that right?” she said.
“As we stated, if necessary, in their own self-defense, they can temporarily detain and hand over to ICE, but there’s no arresting going on, and you know this better than — you’re trying to play political games,” Hegseth glared.
Slotkin is likely asking the question due to reports that U.S. Marines detained a man outside of a federal building, the Military Times reported. The man did not hear their commands to stop.
Slotkin moved on, asking questions about using cybersecurity before she and Hegseth clashed again.
“Have you given the order to be able to shoot at unarmed protesters in any way?” she asked.
Hegseth laughed at her.
“I’m just asking the question. Don’t laugh,” she said. “The whole country — and by the way, my colleagues across the aisle —”
Hegseth cut her off to ask, “What is that based on? What evidence would you have that an order like that has ever been given?”
“It is based on Donald Trump giving that order to your predecessor, to a Republican Secretary of Defense who I give a lot of credit to because he didn’t accept the order. He has more guts and balls than you because he said, ‘I’m not going to send in the military to do something that I know in my gut is not right. He was asked to shoot at their legs. He wrote that in his book. That’s not hearsay. So your pooh-poohing of this, it just shows you don’t understand who we are as a country. And all of my colleagues across the aisle, especially the ones that served, should want an apolitical military and not want citizens to be scared of their own military.”
In the drama of Hegseth’s January confirmation hearings, it was easy to get distracted by the financial settlement for an assault allegation, by the multitudinous accounts of heavy drinking on the job, by claims of misogyny from both his mother and his sister-in-law, by the fact that Hegseth, while married with three small children, had fathered a child with a Fox News producer who was also married with small children, during which pregnancy he had slept with the woman who later accused him of assault, and thereby miss some straightforward information about his managerial experience.
Pete Hegseth had run a nonprofit called Veterans for Freedom for several years, an organization that employed fewer than 20 people, and resigned after alleged financial mismanagement nearly bankrupted the organization. He had run a group called Concerned Veterans for America, which employed around 160 people, and resigned amid allegations of misconduct and, once again, financial mismanagement.
In choosing Hegseth, Donald Trump did not choose from the large set of people who had never managed an organization, or the considerably smaller set of people who had managed an organization without incident, but from a smaller still set of people who had managed multiple bureaucracies and resigned multiple times under complex circumstances.
President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that anyone who protests at the U.S. military parade here on Saturday will be met with “very heavy force.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that they’re going to be “celebrating big on Saturday,” referring to the parade that will wind its way through downtown Washington, D.C.
“If there’s any protester that wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,” Trump said. “I haven’t even heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very heavy force.”
After days of fiery protest against federal immigration raids, Los Angeles residents and officials braced for the arrival of hundreds of U.S. Marines on Tuesday in what some called an unprecedented and potentially explosive deployment of active-duty troops with hazy mission objectives.
As Trump administration officials vowed to crack down on “rioters, looters and thugs,” state local officials decried the mobilization of 700 troops from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, calling it a clear violation of law and civility. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass even likened the deployment to “an experiment” that nobody asked to be a part of.
According to the U.S. Northern Command, which oversees troops based in the United States, the Marines will join “seamlessly” with National Guard troops under “Task Force 51” — the military’s designation of the Los Angeles force
Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot told The Times on Tuesday that the troops are in Los Angeles only to defend federal property and federal personnel and do not have arrest power.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/marines-on-streets-of-la-bring-peril-questions/ar-AA1Gt3Yk
President Donald Trump has defended his decision to send another 2,000 National Guard troops to confront immigration protesters in Los Angeles, as the demonstrations spread to other US cities.
The protests began Friday in downtown LA after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. Trump on Monday authorized the deployment of 700 Marines and additional National Guard troops to LA as the protests entered a fourth day. It came after an initial 300 troops arrived in the city on Sunday.
The demonstrations spread to other cities including Boston, Houston and Philadelphia on Monday. In Dallas, hundreds of protesters gathered for a rally which police declared was “unlawful.” Authorities said one person was arrested.
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/la-immigration-protests-live-flash-1195445
Americans fear civil war is beginning right before their eyes as L.A. protesters and police clash — and California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state of California is now suing Donald Trump over his response to the violent riots.
California Democrat Adam Schiff also accused Trump of wanting a reason to justify martial law in the region. The president lobbed several attacks against Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass on his Truth Social on Sunday night.
Trump is deploying 2,000 National Guard troops as protesters seek to block federal immigration authorities from carrying out deportations. ed to deploy status” should they be called upon to defend federal facilities and personnel.
The Marines with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division will work with the roughly 2,100 National Guard troops on the ground to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents, U.S. Northern Command says.
The Marines are moving from their base at Twentynine Palms in the California desert on Monday.
The troops have been trained in de-escalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force, and they will be armed with the weapons they normally carry.
https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/la-immigration-protests-live-flash-1195445
