Trump and Hegseth clash over missile shortage - WP
Kyiv • UNN
U.S. President Donald Trump demanded an explanation from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a meeting in Camp David regarding the acute shortage of ammunition, which threatens to limit military operations against Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump's frustration over the war with Iran erupted at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about why he had apparently been misled about a critical shortage of munitions, including missiles, that now threatens to limit military capabilities against Iran, according to two sources familiar with the conversation, The Washington Post reports, writes UNN.
Details
The meeting took place on Friday on the sidelines of his Cabinet meeting at Camp David, where Trump told Hegseth that he believed the munitions issue had been "resolved," according to both people familiar with the conversation.
The shortage, particularly of long-range guided missiles and air-defense interceptor missiles, was one of the reasons Trump refrained from carrying out additional massive strikes against Iran in recent days, one source said.
On Monday, Trump said that he had ordered and later canceled "the largest attack since World War II" while awaiting statements about new negotiations regarding the Strait of Hormuz.
Although the United States has announced new agreements to produce some of the most critical munitions, such as air-defense missiles for Patriot systems, producing the munitions themselves could take up to two years, and no immediate solution to the shortage is currently expected, the publication notes.
In just the first month of combat, the United States fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 1,000 missiles from Patriot and THAAD systems, as The Post previously reported.
According to one U.S. official, the United States also used more than 1,300 Army tactical ballistic missiles in the first weeks of combat. ATACMS stocks — short-range missiles that are also in demand in Ukraine — have been depleted to the point that practically none remain, one person familiar with the matter said, as Reuters reported earlier this week.
The shortage of defensive munitions has had effects beyond the Middle East. Ukraine is running out of air-defense capabilities, and there are few options for replenishing supplies from Western arsenals, leaving it vulnerable to Russia's long-range attacks, the publication writes.
The shortage of interceptor missiles is also changing the U.S. approach to using munitions against an incoming threat, based on its projected flight path and whether it is a "risk factor," a U.S. official told The Post, as NBC News first reported.
Back at Camp David, when Trump confronted Hegseth over the weapons arsenal, Hegseth defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortage and for failing to ensure that Trump was fully informed about the issue, according to both people familiar with the matter.
The conversation underscored Trump's growing frustration with his defense secretary, who was one of the strongest early advocates of military action against Iran, convincing Trump that it would be a swift and relatively easy victory, according to multiple officials.
"This is 100% fake news. It literally never happened. And President Trump has complete confidence in Secretary Hegseth," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to questions from The Post.
"Secretary Hegseth did not mislead anyone about the state of our munitions and did not blame Deputy Secretary Feinberg. These claims about depleted stocks, internal disagreements, the secretary's position on Iran… are also fabricated," said Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell.
At July Senate hearings, Hegseth sparred with Democrats over whether he had given Trump honest assessments of the war with Iran, including the risks that an extended campaign would pose to U.S. military stocks. During the hearing, Hegseth declined to discuss his advice to the president and repeatedly blamed any shortages on how the Biden administration had managed military affairs, rather than on operations conducted under Trump's leadership.
Hegseth, Feinberg, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine asked lawmakers to provide them with $67 billion in additional military funding to help cover the costs of the war with Iran. Hegseth told lawmakers in testimony last month that the request meets an "urgent, necessary" need to replenish military arsenals.
War with Iran cost the US $37.5 billion - Hegseth22.07.26, 05:32 • 11901 view
Senate Republicans have not yet agreed on a strategy for implementing this package.
The administration’s overall defense budget request for the next fiscal year amounts to a record $1.5 trillion and includes tens of billions of dollars for missile production. But the proposal has stalled as Democrats object to the significant increase, leaving the Pentagon without a clear path to replenish critical weapons, the publication notes.
Since Signalgate, in which Hegseth sent classified information to a chat group that included a reporter just a few months after he was confirmed for the position, rumors have circulated about how long the defense secretary would remain in Trump’s favor. The president has consistently praised Hegseth, saying he looks straight out of "central casting" and that "he loves war."
Since taking office, Trump has launched military operations in seven countries: Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, and Venezuela.
The successful operation to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro appears to have further solidified Hegseth’s position. But the impasse over the Strait of Hormuz, along with the enormous cost and duration of the war with Iran, has undermined Trump’s confidence in him, one source familiar with the conversation at Camp David said.
"Defense Secretary Hegseth is going nowhere, and he will continue working side by side with Deputy Defense Secretary Feinberg to carry out President Trump’s agenda," Parnell said in response to a question about the exchange and the depletion of munitions.
The pressure on stockpiles is not a new challenge. Even before the war began, Caine warned Trump that the United States did not have the stockpiles necessary to sustain a prolonged conflict. But the pace and enormous volume of munitions expended by both sides rapidly accelerated the depletion of key U.S. offensive and defensive munitions.
Although Hegseth and the Pentagon have announced numerous new framework agreements with industry to replenish the arsenal, defense firms "will not start bending metal until there is a contract and congressional appropriations," said Brad Bowman, an Army veteran and senior director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
As a result, it could take years before the stockpiles are restored. "We often talk about the years between expending what we need, signing contracts, and delivery. You don’t just flip a switch and suddenly the munition is in the hands of a service member," he said.