Pete Hegseth

As far as...

President Trump and boots on the ground.

I don't understand why the base, which they have already, they understand, wouldn't have faith in his ability to execute on this.

Look at his track record of pursuing peace through strength, America first outcomes.

What he's simply saying, and it's exactly true, and I've said from this podium too, we're not gonna foreclose any option.

You can't fight and win a war if you tell your adversary what you are willing to do or what you are not willing to do, to include boots on the ground.

Our adversary right now thinks there are 15 different ways we could come at them with boots on the ground.

And guess what?

There are.

So if we needed to, we could execute those options on behalf of the President of the United States and this department.

Or maybe we don't have to use them at all.

Maybe negotiations work.

Or maybe there's a different approach.

The point is to be unpredictable in that.

Certainly not let anybody know what you're willing to do or not do.

He's correct.

But if anybody has internalized the lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan as the first one, President Trump, to call them out for what they are, he's not going to repeat those lessons.

And I think I've been very clear about that from the...

These are missiles that don't even range the United States of America.

They range allies and others.