What’s uniting Trump and Hegseth amid mounting GOP scrutiny
episodePreviously titled “Why Trump has stayed loyal to Hegseth as GOP criticism mounts” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026
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Good morning. It's Thursday, December 4th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, Texas' bathroom bill has arrived, a look at what it means in practice, President Trump surprises his own party with a pardon for a Democrat accused of bribery, and why AI chatbots find it so hard to tell time.
But first, there's been a drumbeat of headlines about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week, drawing increased attention to new and older scandals. The latest came yesterday with a Pentagon inspector's verdict on Hegseth's now infamous signal chats. The watchdog reportedly found that he did violate department regulations when he shared information about planned strikes on Yemen over the app, and that in turn risked endangering lives. But on the issue of whether what he was sharing was classified information, the report points out that Hegseth has the authority to decide which information is classified or not. It ultimately recommended better training for all department staff on the use of personal devices.
More recently, Hegseth has, of course, been at the center of ongoing congressional inquiries over his role in controversial military strikes in the Caribbean. But despite all the scrutiny, the White House has stood by Hegseth through these controversies, at least for now. Michael Gordon is a national security correspondent for The Wall Street Journal who wrote about what it is about Hegseth that continues to appeal to President Trump, specifically, as Hegseth himself has put it, his warrior ethos.
Part of that meant relaxing rules of engagement, which are put in place to govern the use of military force. Hegseth argued that the rules had been too restrictive in the past and that they needed to be eased. So I don't think it's surprising that the administration has taken a pretty assertive use and aggressive use on these bus strikes. It's pretty much what Secretary Hegseth said he was going to do.
For years, Hegseth has argued that U.S. military leaders should relax the rules of engagement in order to free themselves from the burdens of possible legal action or courts martial. In a rebranding event of the Department of Defense to the Department of War earlier this year, Hegseth explained his approach.
We're going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct. We're going to raise up warriors, not just defenders.
In that same address, he characterized rules that govern military action as, quote, stupid rules of engagement. Gordon told us this makes him a real outlier in military circles, let alone to be leading the military.
His recommendation that the ROE, Rules of Engagement, be used is highly controversial within military circles. I've talked to generals who are currently serving, and they say the previous ROE were fine and necessary even to regulate the use of force.
Hegseth's views are now facing more scrutiny than at any time since his confirmation hearings, as Congress seeks more answers on September's boat strike. Gordon says their approach to other strikes raises even more questions.
The next month, there was an instance in which the U.S. struck a semi-submersible vessel. There were two survivors. They were rescued and they were repatriated to their countries.
What recent controversies surround Secretary Pete Hegseth?
And so a question I have in my mind is how does the administration explain an action that killed the two survivors in September and a set of decisions just a month later in which it not only rescued the survivors but sent them home scot-free?
And yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Hegseth had forced the four-star general heading up Caribbean operations to step down earlier this year amid concerns he had over the legality of planned operations. Hegseth has described some of the decisions made around the strikes as part of the fog of war. Today, lawmakers might get to clear some of that fog as they question the admiral in charge of the operation, Admiral Frank Bradley.
In Texas today, SB-8, also known as the bathroom bill, takes effect.
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