‘Internal politics’ blamed as Hegseth order pauses Trump’s Ukraine weapons flights & stuns White House

One week after President Trump began his second term, eleven flights carrying artillery shells and other weapons to Ukraine were suddenly stopped. This caused widespread confusion within the U.S. government and led to urgent questions from Ukrainian and Polish officials.

According to Reuters, the order came from the office of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and surprised President Trump as well as other high-ranking national security officials in the White House, Pentagon, and State Department. At first, no one in the administration could clearly explain why the shipments had been suspended.

The sudden stoppage severely disrupted military aid to Ukraine. The U.S. Transportation Command, TRANSCOM, responsible for the shipments, lost between $1.6 million and $2.2 million due to the canceled flights, according to the Deccan Herald. The flights had started from Dover Air Force Base and a U.S. base in Qatar. They were eventually restarted within a week, but the incident raised serious concerns about how the administration was making decisions.

Trump’s Defense Secretary stopped his shipment

The timeline suggests the flights were halted between January 30, after a White House meeting about Ukraine policy, and February 2, when Ukrainian and European officials began asking about the missing shipments. According to TRANSCOM records, the verbal order to stop the flights came from the Secretary of Defense’s office, referred to as “SECDEF.”

Operations resumed by February 5. There are different explanations for why the order was given. Some sources say it was a deliberate policy decision, while others claim it was meant as a temporary pause to review the situation but was misunderstood as a full cancellation.

This event revealed major internal conflicts within the Trump administration, particularly in the Pentagon. Multiple sources point to deep disagreements over foreign policy, personal rivalries, and inexperienced staff contributing to a disorganized and often chaotic approach to national security.

A small group of Hegseth’s advisors, many of whom had no prior government experience, reportedly pushed for stopping aid to Ukraine, in line with an anti-interventionist stance. Some of these advisors had publicly criticized U.S. aid to Ukraine and had written memos suggesting the halt, though it is unclear how much influence they actually had.

After news broke about the canceled flights, several of Hegseth’s top advisors were fired from the Pentagon, accused of leaking classified information without authorization. Hegseth himself also faced more scrutiny over his communications and how he handled the Ukraine aid situation. The White House, when questioned, claimed Hegseth was following a directive from President Trump to pause the aid, but they did not explain why there had been no communication or coordination among top national security officials.

Despite the initial pause and a later, longer stoppage of aid in early March, the Trump administration eventually sent the remaining aid that had been approved under the Biden administration. No new official policy changes regarding Ukraine aid were announced.