In spectacular fashion Donald Trump threw his PR team under the bus after inadvertently confirming a story by what he called “treasonous leakers” about a heated argument with his Defense Chief Pete Hegseth over the United States’ depleted munitions stockpile.
The report by The Washington Post said Trump and Hegseth argued during a retreat at Camp David Friday, July 31, with the president lashing out and blaming Hegseth for using up 80 percent of the country’s arms supplies in Trump’s deadly and unapproved war on Iran.
The Post says Trump “demanded answers” from the former Fox News weekend morning host on how supplies had become so dangerously low, threatening the U.S.’ ability to respond militarily in other parts of the world should the need arise.
Citing anonymous sources, the news outlet reported that Hegseth first defended himself then “blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt first said the story was “FAKE NEWS” and had “never happened.”
“I was at Camp David with President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. This literally never happened, and we told the Washington Post that repeatedly,” she wrote in a post on X.
Leavitt went on to insist that “the President loves the Secretary and thinks he’s doing a tremendous job,” before proclaiming, “FAKE NEWS!”
And that might have been well and fine because critics point out no one believes anything Leavitt says anyway after more than 16 months of gaslighting the American public constantly with falsehoods and denials.
But Trump, never one to keep quiet, jumped in contradicting Leavitt with his own social media post early Thursday morning, just after midnight on Aug, 6, seeming to confirm that the Post story is indeed true.
“The U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types,” Trump insisted in what critics call a deceptive post.
“Additionally, large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed. Defense companies are building the largest number of plants and factories in our country’s history,” he claimed before issuing a threatening warning.
“The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!”
Opponents point out there’s a few problems with Trump’s post if the story is honestly not true. First how could someone leak an untrue, fabricated story?
And second, if plenty of munitions are available why are “large amounts being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed?” If there’s truly no shortfall, the U.S. wouldn’t need weapons shipments.
Later in the day Thursday afternoon, Trump defended Hegseth and denied in another social post that he and Hegseth argued, even going so far as to call the Post story about it “treasonous.”
“The Fake News, as usual, is spreading false and completely unfounded rumors. I am extremely happy with the job that Pete Hegseth is doing. Everything has been extraordinary,” Trump crowed, going on to list what he considers Hegseth’s accomplishments as DOD chief.
“Pete is highly respected within the Military, and has made tremendous improvements, including getting rid of DEI, and increasing recruitment to historic levels,” the president trumpeted before calling the Post’s reporting “completely FALSE” and “treasonous.”
Social media exploded in outrage against both Trump and Leavitt.
“Then of course the story is true,” former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger posted on X.
X user Hoss the Love Dane stuck a serious note.
“The problem here is that we have watched Karoline Leavitt lie over and over again herself. So. We have reached a point where there is absolutely no one credible enough to believe. But what is true is that we are low on munitions. And 1/4 of our national debt is directly related to Trump policies. We have no money. Our leaders on both sides have let us down.”
Trump and Hegseth launched their deadly war on Iran on February 28. So far at least 18 American service members have been killed and thousands of Iranians. Six months later the U.S. is now in a quagmire with Tehran, a virtual stand-off as the Iranians continue to block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for the world’s oil supplies.
The Post also reported that Trump called off a massive attack on Iran last weekend over the munitions shortages, including long-range guided missiles and air-defense interceptors.
