How embarrassing it must be to be the Secretary of Defense and have the president override you, right there, in full public view.
But that’s just what President Trump did to Secretary of Defense Hegseth last night while speaking to the press during a dinner with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
You may have heard that just last week, Trump’s Pentagon withheld military aid to Ukraine for no clear reason. Yep, that happened. And then Ukrainian President Zelenskyy called Trump to get the aid released. It was.
This all begs a serious question: who’s in charge here?!
When significant national security decisions are made, such as withholding military aid from an American ally in the midst of a war for survival, usually that decision is made by the president after an interagency discussion convened by the National Security Council.
But apparently not this time.
So what signal does this send to our allies? It’s clear: American leadership is ad-hoc and depends on the day you get to Trump. There is no clear process to follow, no strong set of convictions against which you can measure your actions. Nothing predictable or clear.
There’s just a ‘what I want when I want it’ theory of foreign policy right now - also known as ‘chaos.’ That makes us less safe.
So congratulations to President Zelenskyy for understanding this and for getting the weapons that he and his country so desperately need released. The same goes for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who understands Trump quite well, showing his prowess by giving Trump a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. I actually can’t believe that no other foreign leader thought of that one. Genius!
But as for the people working in the Trump Administration on foreign policy, good luck. You best run your ideas up the flagpole and by the boss, because if you don’t (and maybe even if you do), don’t be surprised if you get overruled for all the public to see.
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