President Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is imploding again. We just learned that he shared still more highly sensitive data on a private Signal chat. A GOP congressman just basically called for his resignation. And a former chief Pentagon official who is a Trump supporter himself also tore into Hegseth’s tenure, calling it a “full-blown meltdown.” That triggered a furious response from Donald Trump Jr., who declared this turncoat critic “exiled” from the Trump movement. Other MAGA figures raged at Hegseth’s critics as well. We talked to Juliette Kayyem, a former national security official under Barack Obama. She takes us through this latest scandal and explains why the profoundly unfit Hegseth will become a much, much bigger problem for Trump—with no easy way out for the president. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.
PODCAST
“Full-Blown Meltdown”: Don Jr. and MAGA Rage as GOPers Turn on Hegseth
As the scandals around Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth grow and GOP knives come out for him, a sharp observer of the national security bureaucracy explains why President Trump is caught in a brutal bind.

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Donald Trump Jr. in New York City on October 27, 2024