Nobody can say Donald Trump wasn’t told that going to war with Iran was a terrible idea.
JD Vance was openly skeptical and tried to stop it. Marco Rubio was “tepid” on the idea. Former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center Joe Kent resigned, saying there was no “imminent threat” from Iran to justify it. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine warned Trump of “significant risks” inherent to the plan. Tucker Carlson met with Trump three times to try to convince him it would be a disaster.
However, both Benjamin Netanyahu and Pete Hegseth were eager to get this war started already! Reports indicate Netanyahu personally sold Trump on an “easy war” with a short campaign that the president could take full credit for, apparently dangling the prospect of Trump also taking revenge for alleged Iranian plots against his life.
Trump just blamed Pete Hegseth for the war.
— Brian Allen (@allenanalysis) March 23, 2026
“Pete… you said, ‘Let’s do it.’”
Commander in Chief… outsourcing accountability. pic.twitter.com/4A0C2Un5j3
Pete Hegseth was similarly enthusiastic, with Trump saying: “Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up, and you said, ‘Let’s do it because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon‘”. Hegseth went on to downplay any risks involved, echoing Netanyahu that this conflict could only benefit Trump.
But, with a provisional ceasefire on the table that may leave Iran stronger than before the war, Trump is humiliated and presumably looking for someone to pass the blame onto. He can’t fire Netanyahu, but he can fire Hegseth.
“Dumb McNamara”
The defense secretary has reportedly been misleading the president. https://t.co/Ary4nFCRBz
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) April 7, 2026
Reports indicate that briefings are already underway against Hegseth, with The Washington Post quoting an anonymous administration official as saying, “Pete is not speaking truth to the president. As a result, the president is out there repeating misleading information.”
The White House is still publicly supporting Hegseth, though there continue to be anonymous briefings that there is internal anger over Hegseth claiming Iran’s missiles were “overwhelmingly destroyed” when they so clearly weren’t.
Watching Pete Hegseth’s look of what the hell when Trump said in an interview that the Iran War was all his idea was hilarious. Apparently he thought Trump would only do this to the women and not men especially one like him! He’s going to be the one blamed for all of it. 😂 pic.twitter.com/N3gLWoJeqC
— Suzie rizzio (@Suzierizzo1) March 25, 2026
The Washington Post article says White House officials are “worried” about “whether the defense secretary is explaining the evolving complexity of the conflict to Trump”.
All this can be read as a not particularly subtle indication that Hegseth is being set up as the scapegoat for the war with Iran. Hegseth isn’t exactly helping himself here, as his own high-profile firings of top officers during wartime have sparked criticism of Pentagon chaos, even from some Republicans. Apparently, several officials have even nicknamed Hegseth “Dumb McNamara”, a comparison to former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, a key architect of the Vietnam War.
Trump himself has also been in a firing kind of mood lately, with the sudden departures of Kristi Noem and Pam Bondi. So, as the implications of the cost to regular Americans, reputational damage, and loss of billions of dollars of military hardware become apparent, we suspect Trump will be eyeing Hegseth as a necessary sacrifice.
After all, all this is inevitably going to negatively hit Trump in the upcoming November midterms. Politically, it’s the smart move to isolate and humiliate Hegseth, insist that he misinformed the president and provided an inaccurate strategic prediction, and say this entire mess is his fault alone.
The cherry on top is that Hegseth is deeply disliked by most of the American people, so by canning him, Trump may even see a bump in his rock-bottom approval ratings.
All of which means that Hegseth may want to get a head start on clearing out his desk. Maybe there’s a job opening back at Fox News?
Published: Apr 8, 2026 05:00 am