Trump backs Hegseth after report of dispute over weapon stockpiles
The president has stood by Hegseth since his rocky confirmation process in January 2025
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PRESIDENT Donald Trump defended Pete Hegseth after a report about a disagreement over dwindling US weapons stockpiles raised questions about the Pentagon chief’s future in the administration.
“I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing,” Trump said in a social media post on Thursday (Aug 6). “Everything has been extraordinary, including our attack on Venezuela” and likewise in Iran, “where the country has been decimated.”
Trump’s comments followed a Washington Post report on Wednesday that said Trump vented frustration with Hegseth on the sidelines of a Cabinet meeting last week, saying he had been misled about munitions shortages.
Trump has refuted that reporting, repeating that “defence companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history.”
Later on Thursday, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “we have certain types of munitions that are very powerful — that we have unlimited, virtual unlimited supply. We have others where it’s a little bit tighter, and we’re getting them in on a daily basis.”
The president threatened in an earlier post that “leakers” of supposed “treasonous statements” are being pursued, adding, “Long-term jail sentences will be sought!”
Trump provided no evidence that any laws were broken in the course of reporting on US weapons supplies.
Even as the president has increasingly aired his grievances over the drawn-out war in Iran in public, he’s praised Hegseth for what they both claim was a successful military campaign.
The president has stood by Hegseth since his rocky confirmation process in January 2025. Trump defended him when the Pentagon inspector general’s office concluded in December that Hegseth had exposed sensitive information about US military operations in Yemen when he shared details in a Signal group chat with other senior national-security officials that inadvertently included a journalist.
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Trump has also been effusive about Hegseth’s brash, unapologetic leadership at the Pentagon, where he’s ousted scores of senior officers considered to be disloyal or out of alignment with the Trump administration’s objectives. BLOOMBERG
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