As questions intensify over U.S. weapons shortfalls, Trump trips over his contradictions
The first signs of trouble reached the public in May. As the war with Iran continued to unfold, many U.S. officials expressed concerns about the state of the military’s weapons stockpiles, and there was ample reporting to suggest those concerns were valid. The New York Times reported in the spring, for example, that the U.S. missile stockpiles had been “greatly reduced because of the war, and will take years to replenish.” A month later, MS NOW reported that the conflict had “significantly depleted the U.S. military’s global munitions supply.”
Recently, these concerns reached a new level of intensity. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that there were growing concerns “about how many missiles the U.S. military has left,” and days later, Reuters reported that the U.S. military had already used “virtually all” of its long-range precision missiles as part of the combat operations in the Middle East.
The concerns have not gone unnoticed in the White House. The Washington Post reported:
President Donald Trump’s frustration over the Iran war boiled over at Camp David last week, where he demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on why he had apparently been misled on extreme munitions shortages that now threaten to limit military options with Iran, two people familiar with the exchange told The Washington Post.
The encounter took place on the sidelines of his Cabinet meeting at Camp David on Friday where Trump vented at Hegseth that he thought the munitions issue “had been fixed,” according to both people familiar with the conversation, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation.
According to the Post’s report, which has not been independently verified by MS NOW, Hegseth “defended himself and blamed his deputy, Stephen Feinberg, for the shortages and for not ensuring Trump was fully apprised of the issue.”
The defense tactic apparently worked. NBC News reported that Feinberg, the deputy defense secretary, received an “angry phone call” from Trump on Friday, at which point the Pentagon official “hastily gathered top military and defense acquisition officials” for a “crisis meeting” about the U.S. weapons shortfalls.
That report, which also has not been independently verified by MS NOW, added that Trump had suggested during the call that Feinberg should be fired.
All of which is to say, when it comes to the military’s stockpiles during an ongoing war in the Middle East, the Republican administration is experiencing some disarray.
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Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
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