Leavitt slams media for ‘fake news’ reports on Hegseth

In our last report, we outlined the problems of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

NPR recently reported that Trump was now in search of a replacement for him, which the White House denied.

Hegseth’s problems

When Hegseth was nominated, I stated that he was unfit for this position for two main reasons.

The first was his history of financial mismanagement of two charities he was involved with.

The second was that he retired from the Army as a Major, so he never would have been in charge of more than 200 troops at any given time, but now we are supposed to hand over the largest budget of any department and millions of troops?

There were also some personal issues with Hegseth, which I will not get into, but I thought there were plenty of other people Trump could have looked at before plucking Hegseth from Fox News for this post.

NPR report

With two Signal controversies and leaks in the Pentagon, as well as another top staffer recently leaving, NPR reported that Trump was looking for Hegseth’s replacement.

The problem with the NPR story is that, yet again, an unnamed source is cited for most of the information.

Publicly, Trump has backed Hegseth, saying he is doing a great job.

Hegseth spun the report at the White House during Easter activities, stating, "This is what the media does, they take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people, ruin their reputation. It's not going to work with me.”

Leavitt Rips Media

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also torched the media over the report.

She stated, "This @NPR story is total FAKE NEWS based on one anonymous source who clearly has no idea what they are talking about. As the President said this morning, he stands strongly behind @SecDef."

The White House Rapid Response team also defended the Secretary of Defense, posting, “Lies from NPR – which, as well know, is a Fake News propaganda machine.”

Knowing how Trump operates, if he were going to replace Hegseth, Trump would dig in even deeper now, just so the media does not have the satisfaction. I just hope Hegseth can manage to turn this around and not make a mistake that will cost a soldier his or her life. Again, in my opinion, he needs to go.