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Trump and Hegseth Are Winning the War Against Their Own Military

The president and the defense secretary are being humiliated abroad, so they’re purging scapegoats at home.

Donald Trump might not be able to win a war abroad, but he’s found an easier target for his bullying back at home: his own military. 

Trump’s war on Iran is currently mired in an interminable stalemate. Iran is still firmly in control of the Strait of Hormuz (and, by extension, the international energy market) and negotiations to end the conflict have stalled, though a shaky ceasefire remains in place. The situation favors Iran, which has learned how to absorb a great deal of pain after decades of US sanctions and is prepared to endure much worse rather than fold to Trump. Meanwhile, the longer Iran strangles the Strait, the closer the world economy edges to disaster. Even right-wing allies of the president like Gerry Baker, editor at large of The Wall Street Journal, admit the war is “failing.”

In the face of this humiliation on the world stage, Trump and his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are throwing scapegoats from within the US war machine under the bus. 

On Wednesday, Trump unceremoniously fired Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, a billionaire crony of the president. Phelan is part of a much wider military purge. As The New York Times reports, “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired or sidelined more than two dozen generals and admirals over the past year, including the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month. Mr. Hegseth has also butted heads with the secretary of the Army, Daniel P. Driscoll, over promotions and a host of other issues.” On Thursday, the Pentagon fired Jacqueline Smith, the ombudsman for Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper. Her firing seems to have been politically motivated. Smith had been fending off attempts by the Trump White House to weaken the editorial independence of Stars and Stripes, which they accused of being “woke.” 

It’s not uncommon for a president facing a tough war to fire unsuccessful commanders and bring on a new team. Abraham Lincoln famously relieved Major General George B. McClellan of command of the Union Army in 1862. (Lincoln felt that McClellan was a half-hearted warrior unwilling to aggressively engage the Confederate Army.) More controversially but justifiably, Harry Truman fired the insubordinate Douglas MacArthur in 1951. 

Like these earlier presidents, Trump is struggling with the headwinds of a war that isn’t going to plan. But, to put it mildly, the similarities end there. The latest firings aren’t motivated by a desire to build a better army. As with so many of his other decisions, they are fueled by Trump’s vanity and refusal to take responsibility for his failures. Throw in Hegseth’s ideological zeal (as evidenced in the Smith firing) and personal ambition, and you’re left with an especially toxic state of affairs. 

Phelan’s sacking is a particularly ridiculous example of Trump’s overweening egoism. The president........

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