The war in America is over, and Trump is already looking for a scapegoat: blame Hegseth!
While announcing a ceasefire with Iran, Trump is also preparing to find someone to blame for the U.S. getting dragged into this war.
On the 7th, The Washington Post published a report in which multiple anonymous U.S. officials directly pointed fingers at Defense Secretary Hegseth, accusing him of not telling the truth to Trump on the issue of U.S.-Iran war, leading Trump to "continuously repeat misleading information."
According to these officials, Hegseth has been boasting for weeks that Iran's air defense capabilities have been completely destroyed by U.S. forces and that Iran's missile stockpile has been reduced to its lowest level. However, recently, several U.S. aircraft were shot down or damaged by Iranian air defenses, and at one point, two U.S. pilots were stranded deep inside Iran.
In addition, these American officials also criticized Hegseth for lacking professional competence, having used the number of missiles fired by Iran as the primary criterion for assessing Iran’s strength—an approach they deem extremely unreliable.
The message from The Washington Post's report couldn't be clearer: Trump has already begun implying that the reason the U.S. fought such a pointless war, spent so much money, and lost so much equipment, was all due to Hegseth's misleading information.
Therefore, if one day Hegseth gets fired by Trump, it won’t come as a surprise—placing blame on subordinates has always been Trump’s modus operandi. From his first term onward, several members of Trump’s cabinet have become scapegoats for major incidents.
And when it comes to the messy conclusion of the U.S.-Iran war, there’s no better scapegoat than Hegseth: he was not only one of the key proponents behind this operation, but also lacks deep political connections; had it not been for Trump’s promotion, Hegseth might still be just a host at Fox News today.
Original article: toutiao.com/article/1861887051002892/
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