No. of Recommendations: 14
"Hegseth is now holding more press conferences...because some White House officials have privately conceded that they are losing the communications war. The Trump team should have seen this coming: When Hegseth kicked the press corps out of the Pentagon last fall—including reporters from The Atlantic—for not agreeing to publish only Pentagon-approved news, some reporters warned department officials that such a move might make it harder for the public to understand America’s operations overseas, Nancy told me. Now the United States is involved in a major war, and no one in the Pentagon, the White House, or the State Department seems able to explain why without contradicting one another.
In the midst of all this, Hegseth provided at least one moment of clarity: He showed, yet again, why he is an execrable choice to lead the Pentagon. Like his boss, he does not talk to the American people so much as put on performances for them, and this morning, he played the role of the Fox News pundit castigating other journalists. But the people in the briefing room were doing their job trying to get the facts. Unlike Hegseth, they are taking their responsibilities seriously: This is not a game, it’s not a TV show, and it’s not some adolescent test of wills.
Pete Hegseth, if he does not resign, should at least get out of the way and let better men than him talk to the nation and to the press. No one is asking for classified details to be revealed in public; no one expects Periclean rhetoric from a talk-show host. But the people of the United States deserve more of an explanation of what’s happening in this war, and they certainly deserve more of an encomium for their fallen children than “Tragic things happen.” —Tom Nichols, The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/2026/03/pe... 